This evening, Rivkah and Sarah met with the people who were involved with the construction of the community sukkah, Kernel aka Moses, and Harriet. We talked for over an hour, over many things.
One of the things that came up is the parallel between the #Occupy movement and the traditional celebration of Sukkot by the Jewish people. In the Torah, the festival of Sukkot is commanded (a mitzvah) to remember -- for a week out of every year -- that we were all once refugees, immigrants, and homeless, and therefore humble ourselves and not oppress the strangers but rather do justice and advocate for their rights.
The #Occupy movement reminds the "top 1 percent" their oppression and arrogance over the "99 percent" -- especially those who are immigrants, refugees, unhoused, and those who lack their necessities while public assistance is slashed even as the taxes for the top 1 percent are also cut. The #Occupy movement also proposes a vision of a different world -- a different way of being a community, free from money-driven, power-driven greed.
The festival of Sukkot, then, is the original #Occupy demonstration.
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