Our PVC Sukkah - Noah Rubin (Week 6)

Since my brother and I were little, we always had a Sukkah. Every year, our dad used to build a wooden Sukkah that could hold about 10-15 people (pre-covid - now it could probably legally hold 2). It used to take a whole day to put up - and Josh and I were little so we couldn't really help… I vividly remember him, sometimes with a few friends or our uncle, bringing the pieces of wood, metal brackets, screws, ladders, and fabric out to the backyard to make the Sukkah. I used to pass the screws up to him as he stood on a ladder securing the wood to the brackets. Then, Josh and I would make paper chains, signs, and decorations - sounds cute ik. We even had Sukkah parties with a bunch of people - I have no idea how my mother allowed it either. Sukkot was always a fun time. We used to make popsicle sticks, Sukkot, make decorations, play games etc. I couldn’t find a picture of one of the Sukkah parties, but they did happen.

As we got older we stopped doing Sukkah parties and, somewhere around middle school, the wooden pieces got left outside and rotted. After not having a Sukkah for a few years, Josh and I took it upon ourselves to make one out of PVC - we had seen PVC Sukkot and we thought it shouldn’t be too hard. We used a lot of PVC that we had in our garage, bought some new connectors from home depot and used the old fabric, too. It was harder than we expected, especially because we hadn’t bought all the stuff for the new Sukkah. After a couple days working on it, we did finish the Sukkah, though! It worked out great last year, until it infamously fell over on the second to last day…

This year, Josh and I built another Sukkah out of the same PVC, but in a different shape and we built the Sukkah up against the house. It has been a lot sturdier this year, and we’ve even been able to get an outlet out there and have lights and a fan. In addition, this is the first year we had a Lulav and Etrog - shout out to Rabbi Barrak from JSU for that. The only downside is that we can’t see the Sukkah from inside our house, because it’s behind a wall.

Despite the lack of gatherings and Sukkah parties this year, I’d say the holiday was pretty good and that our Sukkah held up well. What do you guys think? Did anyone else take the extra time on their hands and build a Sukkah?