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About the Yavneh succa...
GIDEON AND THE SUKKAH THAT EMBRACED A COMMUNITY
This is a heart warming story about a man, a community, and a sukkah. The man is Gideon Gur-Arie. The community is the Yavneh Minyan of Flatbush. The sukkah... well... the sukkah is a wonderfully unique structure that was conceived and built with love and care.
Born and raised in Israel, Mr. Gur-Arie moved to Flatbush in 2006 after living in Los Angeles for 40 years. The Yavneh Minyan of Flatbush became his makom tefilla and kehilla. A jovial and engaging gentleman, he has endeared himself to the Yavneh community. He has repeatedly preserved the wellbeing and comfort of minyan members by donating his expertise as an electrician. Whether it's to repair the aged and lumbering shul air conditioner, to make sure a circuit is safe, or to help individual minyan members, Gideon has been there. He states he was drawn to the Yavneh minyan because it exemplified for him the middos of Hachnosos Orchim and of V'Ahavta L'Reacha Kamocha, thus, the desire to give back so much.
But, this year, Mr. Gur-Arie went well beyond the call of 'chesed' duty. He spent countless hours throughout the course of the year and used his own resources to design and build "The Sukkah of the Twelve Tribes", also fondly known to Yavneh Minyan members as "Gideon's Sukkah." What's so special about this sukkah? What inspired its construction?
"The Sukkah of the Twelve Tribes" stemmed from Gideon's desire to have as many shul members as possible, young and old, comfortably fit into the sukkah, as well as a further desire to make the sukkah wheelchair accessible for this writer and any other wheelchair users. He wanted the sukkah to be unique in design and invulnerable to the wind. So he conceived of an ideal shape, a dodecagon: a 12 sided figure, corresponding to the 12 tribes of Am Yisrael. Mr. Gur-Arie surmised that a structure with twelve 5-foot wide walls that approximates a circle would maximize usable space and be strong enough to withstand the wind. Why, Gideon, ever mindful of the safety of others even installed a lightning rod to divert chance lightning bolts into the ground.
The sukkah has an artful geometric design. The vertex of any two walls is always a perfect twenty feet from the vertex joining the opposite two walls no matter where around the sukkah one happens to be located. It seats 44 people comfortably with a standing room of 60. It is a firm painstakingly thought-out, self-reinforcing and beautiful structure. Wind gusts from storms merely swerved around the sturdy circumference-like perimeter of the sukkah. One wall serves as an entrance. It was sized perfectly for entry for wheelchairs of any size! Mr. Gur-Arie beveled and placed 2 planks of wood on either side of the ground level supporting pipe to allow a wheelchair user to easily and smoothly roll right into the sukkah.
While Mr. Gur-Arie served as chief architect and builder, several minyan members volunteered their time and their labor to help construct Gideon's vision. The artwork of Shoshana Brombacher, a Yavneh Minyan shul member and well known artist in the Jewish community (http://www.absolutearts.com/shoshannah/), adorned the sukkah. The artwork contained the 7 Ushpizin, the 7 distinguished guests from the Tenach who we invite on the 7 nights of Succos!
"I had the greatest pleasure when the children of the shul flowed into the sukkah to hear Kiddush, and when I had a chance to proudly wheel you [this writer] on a tour of the sukkah," Mr. Gur-Arie declared. "A young girl walked over to me and asked if I could build a sukkah for her!"
Thank you Mr. Gur-Arie for building a sukkah that accommodates the space and safety needs of the many and the wheelchair access needs of the few. May we all learn from his sensitivity, awareness, and initiative so that we can invite Jews of every shape, size, and color into our sukkahs.
Sharon Shapiro-Lacks
Executive Director of Yad HaChazakah -The Jewish Disability Empowerment Center, Inc. (212-284-6936, www.yad-jdec.org) and member of the Yavneh Minyan of Flatbush (www.yavnehminyan.org)
