HOW WILL THE MUSLIMS REACT TO THE MOBILE SUCCA?

I was on shlichus in Tashkent in 5753. My friends and I used military trucks for Mivtza Succa. At the time, I wrote the following journal entries:

“Wednesday, the first day of Chol Ha’Moed Succos. The deliberations were not easy at all. Yaakov and Moshe (two of the tmimim who were with me on shlichus in Tashkent) came up with the idea of building a succa on the back of a truck and driving around with it in places where many Jews are, to enable them to shake the lulav and sit in the succa. But in Uzbekistan this was no simple matter since most people are Muslims and you can’t know what passersby will think and how the police will react. The laws in Uzbekistan are tough and a display like this going through the streets can incur the wrath of the police.

“After lengthy discussions, the project got under way. This morning, a big truck came to yeshiva. The truck with its driver was hired for 1000 rubles a day which is equal to only three dollars.

“The shluchim divided into two groups, one group, including me, built the succa. A second group prepared huge signs to hang on the truck. We built the succa to be sturdy so it wouldn’t fall apart as we drove around. The dark clouds that forecast imminent rain had us fortifying the succa even more. Despite everyone’s efforts, the construction of the succa took a long time.

“At seven at night, the Simchas Beis Ha’Shoeiva began in the Bucharian shul Gravnova. Over 300 people came to shul to celebrate. A lot of advance work went into the making of this event; all the shluchim in Tashkent advertised the Simchas Beis Ha’Shoeiva and boruch Hashem, we got a big crowd.

“Thursday, the second day of Chol Ha’Moed. This morning, when we hung the giant signs on the truck, we had our doubts, once again. What would non-Jews think of the signs? Would the signs about the Moshiach of the Jews and the “Happy Holiday” greetings to the Jews of Tashkent engender aggression against the succa and maybe against us?

“We had another concern about how the Jews would understand what we wrote on the signs. Because of this, in addition to the dalet minim and refreshments in the succa, we included brochures in Russian that explain what Succos is about and brochures that explain about the imminent coming of Moshiach.

“The succa set out and drivers on the road looked at our succa in astonishment. Every so often, we heard drivers shouting ‘Shalom’ or saying something else to express their Jewishness. We gave brochures to them.

“The office of the Jewish Agency was our next stop. A surprise awaited us there after we informed the local director Mr. Simon that we had come with a mobile succa. He asked the secretary to inform all his clerks ‘to stop working; everyone to the succa!’ It was amazing to see how every clerk closed his office in the middle of the work day and together with dozens of Jews who were waiting there, they all came out to the succa, said a bracha on the minim and did the mitzva of sitting in the succa.

“Friday, third day of Chol Ha’Moed. It rained at night and the mobile succa was greatly damaged. A large part of the schach flew off and the colors from the signs melted all over the place. We quickly regrouped. Moshe bought plastic sheeting with which we wrapped the signs and with our joint efforts we refurbished the succa and drove off. This time, traveling in the succa was a nightmare since the benches inside were sopping wet, outside it was bitter cold and yet, we continued in order to enable as many Jews as possible to do the mitzvos of the holiday.”