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‘Girls’-Themed Decorations For Your Sukkah

Let the cast of the hit HBO show be your Sukkot spirit guide(s)

by
Elissa Goldstein
September 18, 2013
Ari Perlow
'Girls' ushpizinAri Perlow
Ari Perlow
'Girls' ushpizinAri Perlow

On Sukkot, it’s traditional to welcome seven ushpizin (“guests”) into the sukkah, one for each night of the festival—sort of like welcoming Elijah at the end of the Passover seder, but without your older siblings trying to convince you that the wine level in the cup is going down. Anyway! The ushpizin are Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph and David; Judaism’s most venerated patriarchs. (Yep, traditionally no matriarchs, but Ritualwell and NeoHasid, among others, are on it.) The tradition has beautiful, mystical origins—each guest corresponds to one of God’s seven divine attributes, the sefirot. It’s also meant to serve as a reminder of the mitzvah of hachnasat orchim, the welcoming of guests.

So, what does this have to do with HBO’s hit show, Girls? Well, technically… not much. But one Tablet reader has made a Girls ushpizin meme, and it’s pretty rad.

“I wanted to decorate my sukkah with images of people I would like to have over, i.e. the characters from Girls,” says Ari Perlow of Melbourne, Australia. “Also, I like a good Shoshanna/Jewish holiday pun!” (Hoshana Rabbah is the seventh day of Sukkot.)

And so do we. Chag sameach, everyone. May your sukkot, and your sukkahs, contain multitudes—the sacred and the profane, the religious and the secular, the Shoshannas and the Jessas.

(Click here for a printable version.)

Elissa Goldstein is Tablet’s director of audience development. She also produces Unorthodox. Follow her on Twitter here.