If Freud Celebrated Sukkot

Jews around the world recently celebrated Sukkot, a joyous holiday that follows five days after the very solemn Yom Kippur; it has its roots as a harvest/agricultural festival. I won’t attempt to explain it in detail here; if you want to read all about it, including a discussion of how to pronounce it, here’s a link from Judaism 101.

The relevant part is that people construct little huts to commemorate the temporary dwellings built when the Jews wandered in the desert for 40 years. It’s traditional to dine in them during this week-long holiday, and some of them are quite elaborate, but they don’t have indoor plumbing.

I was delighted this morning to get an email from Hannah Landsmann, my very helpful contact at the Jewish Museum Vienna.  She wrote: “Last week we had a kids program at the  Jewish Museum where we talked about Sukkot and if and how Sigmund Freud would have celebrated it. The kids designed sukkot for Dr. Freud.”

She included this picture, replete with a green couch for therapy.

Freud wouldn’t have celebrated Sukkot — or any Jewish holiday — but he loved children and I’m sure he would have been very pleased by this rendition of his sukka.