My Zayde loved stuffed cabbage. He was from Poland, and while I don’t know if he ate it much when he was a kid, to me it always felt like food from his past. It’s a food that connects me to a generation of people that I never knew, people that never made it passed the Shoah. When I was in high school, I started making stuffed cabbage. I’ve always marveled at the special way food can be a portal to other people, even in other generations and in other places. I imagine some of you have foods that immediately take you somewhere. And I’m not sure why, but I’ve always associated stuffed cabbage with Sukkot. It’s the only time of year that I make it.
On Sukkot, we invite Ushpizin, ancient guests of our tradition, into our Sukkah. Their presence is meant to bring us blessing. In addition to the traditional Ushpizin, patriarchs from our tradition, this year Abe and I are welcoming women from our people’s history, along with modern day Israeli women, into our Sukkah. (You can see the posters we got here.) There’s power in naming these historical figures we bring into our Sukkah. It allows us to set a certain intention and turn the space of the Sukkah into a time machine, invoking the presence of those whose attributes we admire.
I hope you’ll add your own your own Ushpizin to the list. Who from our people’s history, or your own history, are you bringing into your Sukkah, and what do they add? I would love to hear from you.
This weekend, as we welcome in Sukkot, I’ll be thinking of my Zayde as I make stuffed cabbage. Our Sukkah will be bursting at the seams with all the guests of our past, and as we invoke their presence, we hope to feel the blessing of their lives as well.
