Students do many interesting things around Free Speech Alley, but rarely do they build a shelter.But that is what Hillel at LSU, the Jewish student organization, did to celebrate the biblical holiday Sukkot this week.”We have built a sukkah in front of the union for the last four years,” said Moshe Cohen, Hillel at LSU director and mathematics graduate student.Cohen said Sukkot — the festival of booths — reminds Jews of the Israelites’ temporary homes in the desert after the Exodus from Egypt, when Moses parted the Red Sea to free his enslaved people. Sukkot is the holiday, and a sukkah is the actual shelter.”They were leaving to find their homeland, and for 40 years, they wandered the desert,” he said. “For 40 years, they were without a home.”Rabbi Thomas Gardner at the Beth Shalom synagogue said Sukkot begins on the 15th day of the seventh month and lasts eight days. He said his synagogue has a sukkah, and many of his congregates have booths at their homes as well.”Dwelling in a booth makes us realize how fragile our existence is,” Gardner said. “It really is a kind of thing where we don’t have a secure place in this world. We’re dependent on the kindness of other people, and we’re dependent on God.”Hillel at LSU hosted the “Learn about Sukkot” event Wednesday at the booth outside the Student Union. At the event, Hillel at LSU members and other students from the University community gathered for the special Sukkot prayer involving the lulav — a binding of willow, myrtle and palm leaves — and the etrog — a large citrus fruit – which symbolize the agricultural significance of the holiday.”It’s an agricultural holiday because it coincides with the harvest in the land of Israel,” said Charles Isbell, religious studies professor. “It’s symbolic that when you wave these harvest products that you’re aware of the fact that all the world belongs to God, and it’s a symbolic way of thanking him for the harvest of the land.”Isbell said Jewish people hold the lulav and the etrog in their hands and point them to the four corners of the world — North, South, East and West — as well as up and down to heaven and Earth.The students feasted on Mediterranean food while Cohen and Allison Harrison, Hillel at LSU president and music sophomore, sang prayers in Hebrew.”Sukkot is one of my favorite holidays,” Harrison said. “It’s all about being outdoors, being closer to nature [and] being with family and friends.”Ariel Abamonte, music freshman, said she is not Jewish but went to the Sukkot celebration to experience something new.”It’s interesting to understand the ancestry [of Christianity],” Abamonte said. “If we can educate each other, then there’s less of a chance we will misunderstand each other.”Hillel at LSU invited the community to smoke “Hookah in the Sukkah” at 7 p.m. on Thursday. Cohen said some members plan to sleep in the sukkah tonight in order to wake up and tailgate on Saturday.”Students of all religions, all backgrounds and all cultures have joined us,” Cohen said. “It’s a nice demonstration that we can get along on campus despite our backgrounds. It’s a promising thing for the world.”—-Contact Mary Walker Baus at [email protected]