A blessing in the subway

So this week Jews are celebrating the holiday of Sukkot.

In Biblical times, Sukkot was a pilgrimage festival, a harvest festival where Jews brought fruits to the Temple in Jerusalem.

In modern times, Jews build a temporary hut called a Sukkah,  meant to remind us of the huts our ancestors used while wandering in the desert for 40 years.  Meals are supposed to be eaten in the Sukkah, weather permitting, and some people even sleep in the Sukkah.

There is also the custom of waving the lulav  and etrog.  A lulav is a sort of wand made out of a palm frond woven with myrtle and willow branches.  The etrog is a citron fruit — it looks like a lumpy lemon.

So last night I took the subway from Wall Street to Atlantic Avenue, as I usually do, when I was approached by a Lubavitcher.

Lubavitchers are members of a Hasidic sect.  They proselytize, but only to other (less observant) Jews.  (Like me.)

This gentleman had a lulav and etrog.  He asked if I wanted to recite the blessing.  

You can do that in a moving subway car?

Apparently the answer is “yes”...so I took the items in my hands, and said the appropriate prayer.