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The Five Best Sukkah Time-Lapse Videos

Because on YouTube, preparing for Sukkot only takes a few minutes

by
Zachary Schrieber
October 08, 2014
YouTube
YouTube
YouTube
YouTube

If you’ve ever marveled at how the chicken cordon bleu pops out of Rachel Ray’s oven after just one commercial break, you’ll be thrilled to learn that when it comes to Sukkah construction, Jews have mastered the art of time travel as well.

Sukkahs built from a kit take about around an hour to construct. For the DIY types who want to cut their own wood, well, building a sukkah can be a real pain in the kishkas. But a growing number of time-lapse videos on YouTube appear to show the entire structures being constructed in a matter of minutes, much to the frustration of anyone who’s ever tried to build a sukkah in real time.

We’ve selected the five best of the genre for your Sukkot enjoyment:

If the ridiculously fast moving people fooled you, then the timestamp in the bottom left hand corner should be obvious enough. This one took them about two hours to build. And I still don’t see any tables or chairs.

It’s cute to see a family build a sukkah together. And if you’re feeling particularly nostalgic, their use of stop motion will remind you of coming home from school, eating animal crackers, and watching Gumby.

This father-and-sons team move at warp speed, finishing the mitzvah of building a sukkah in a record 33 seconds. Extra points to whoever had the clever idea to build it around the existing outdoor table and chairs.

The Penn State Chabad’s enormous driveway sukkah was built in just 45 seconds.

This topical—if slightly cringeworthy—Frozen parody has the kids asking, “Do I have to build the sukkah?” The answer is yes, and they’ll do it while singing.

Tablet will be dark until Monday in observance of Sukkot.

Zack Schrieber is an intern at Tablet Magazine. Follow him on Twitter @zschrieber.