Yaakov Raskin | How a Jewish holiday once closed Jamaica’s Parliament

Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement and the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, begins tonight at sunset. While preparing for it this year, I found myself looking back into Jamaica’s Jewish history.

In 1849, eight of the 47 members of Jamaica’s House of Assembly were Jewish, including the Speaker. That year, the House adjourned for Yom Kippur.

Just think about that. Long before most of the world granted Jews political equality, there were enough Jews serving in Jamaica’s legislature that Yom Kippur changed the parliamentary calendar.

It reminds us that when Jews in Jamaica gather for the holidays today, we are continuing a history that has been unbroken on this island for generations.

For about 25 hours, from tonight at around 5:50 p.m. through Monday at 6:41 p.m., Jews on the island and around the world will not eat or drink. Much of the day is spent in the synagogue, praying, reflecting on the year that passed, asking G-d for forgiveness and trying to make things right with people we may have hurt. It is the most serious day of the Jewish year.

Only five days later comes one of the most joyful festivals of the year: Sukkot. While researching old editions of The Gleaner, I came across notices from 1930 announcing Sukkot services in Jamaica. The seven-day holiday commemorates the journey of the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land, and in particular, the dwellings they lived in along the way.

Beginning on Friday evening, September 25, Jews will go outside to eat, sing, invite guests, and celebrate in a temporary structure called a sukkah. Its roof is made from branches or other natural vegetation, with enough space left open that you remain conscious of the sky above you.

According to Jewish tradition, while the Israelites travelled through the Sinai Desert, they received manna from heaven as their daily food and miraculous water to drink and were surrounded by the Clouds of Glory that protected them along the way.

A question many have asked over the ages is why we devote an entire holiday to those protective clouds when the manna and the desert spring were just as miraculous.

One explanation is very simple. Food and water were necessities. Being surrounded by divine clouds was something more. The manna fed them, and the water kept them alive, but the clouds gave them a sense of protection.

This may also answer why Sukkot comes immediately after Yom Kippur. On Yom Kippur, we ask G-d to forgive us for our wrongdoings. On Sukkot, G-d embraces us and invites us back in.

Anyone who has ever had an argument with someone they love understands the difference between hearing “Okay, I forgive you,” and hearing “Come, sit down. We are good.” Jewish mystical teaching compares the sukkah to a divine embrace.

A second part of Sukkot is called the Four Species. During the holiday, Jews take four separate plants and hold them together: the lulav (a palm branch), hadasim (myrtle branches), aravot (willow branches) and the etrog (a citron fruit).

We hold them together, say a blessing and wave them in every direction: up, down, north, south, east, and west. It is a physical way of recognising that G-d is everywhere.

There are many further explanations for the Four Species, but one I especially like is that they represent different kinds of people: people of different personalities, knowledge, spirituality, and kindness. The ritual is complete only when all four are brought together. It signifies that we are all one, and that nothing is whole if we are not all included.

That feels particularly appropriate in Jamaica, where our national motto is “Out of Many, One People”

So in these coming weeks, as summer ends and Jewish people mark Yom Kippur and Sukkot, it is a time to step outside, sit around a table, appreciate the people around us, and be grateful for another year.

Nearly 180 years after Jamaica’s House of Assembly adjourned for Yom Kippur, and almost a century after The Gleaner was announcing Sukkot services on this island, we are preparing to celebrate these holidays once again.

The Torah calls Sukkot “the time of our joy”. So to Jews across Jamaica, I want to extend a personal invitation to come and visit our sukkah. Come have something to eat under the branches. Come shake the lulav and etrog and experience the Four Species.

If you have Jewish ancestry and think you might want to try it, please reach out. Whether it is your first time celebrating these sacred holidays or your hundredth, there is a spot for you at our table.