Sukkot, Bal Taschit and the Garden
by Dana Samelson Sukkot, a seven-day Jewish harvest festival, celebrates gratitude, abundance, and community. As Jews observe Sukkot and reflect on life’ s bounty and fragility, the holiday offers an important reminder: our blessings are not meant to be enjoyed alone. Sukkot calls us to open our doors, welcome others, and share what we have with those in need.
This connection between gratitude and generosity runs through the holiday’ s traditions. Celebrated at the conclusion of the agricultural harvest, Sukkot invites us to recognize that the fruits of our labor are gifts and that they carry a responsibility to take care of others. Hospitality, tzedakah( charitable giving), and caring for vulnerable members of the community are all expressions of this broader Jewish value of turning gratitude into action.
One powerful way to bring these values to life is through community gardening. A garden transforms open space into a place of growth, stewardship, and connection. It teaches patience and care while reminding us of the natural cycles that sustain us. But a harvest has an even greater purpose when its bounty can nourish others.
While Sukkot is perhaps best
By Michael Murra
The schedule of a National Football League( NFL) offensive lineman is a busy and grueling one, but the Carolina Panthers’ Jake Curhan hopes to make time to get involved in Charlotte’ s Jewish community.
“ It’ s a badge of honor for a lot of Jewish people to look and see fellow Jews playing in the NFL – it’ s always fun to make that connection,” Curhan said.
Curhan, 28, also said there’ s so much diversity in NFL locker rooms, which provides environments conducive to listening, learning and growth.
“ A lot of times, I’ m the first Jewish person some of my teammates have ever met,” Curhan said.“ There are questions and misconceptions. Everyone is from all over the place, but we’ re all teammates, and at the end of the day, everyone gets along.”
The sixth-year professional joined the Panthers during their NFC South Division Championship run last season. He’ s currently on Carolina’ s practice squad, which means he’ s one of 16 players who practice with the team but doesn’ t appear in games.
Curhan could, at any point, be activated. He points out that he’ s finished each of his first five NFL seasons on the 53-man known for the etrog( citron), one of the Four Species gathered and waved with the lulav( palm), hadas( myrtle), and aravah( willow), the holiday’ s agricultural connections extend far beyond this ritual. Sukkot is also a celebration of the bounty of the Land of Israel, reflected in the Seven Species traditionally associated with the land: wheat( chita), barley( se’ orah), grapes( gefen), figs( te’ enah), pomegranates( rimon), olives( zayit), and dates( tamar).
Among these seven fruits and grains, figs hold a particularly meaningful connection to the Shalom Park Community Garden. Jewish tradition has long associated figs with bounty, prosperity, and the promise of a rich land. During Sukkot, as we give thanks for the harvest and the natural world that sustains us, the fig trees growing in our garden provide a living connection to this ancient tradition. Their fruit also carries that celebration beyond symbolism: when we harvest figs and donate them to Family Jewish Services, the garden’ s bounty becomes a tangible expression of tzedakah, nourishment, and care for our community.
Each season, as the trees grow and produce fruit, they remind us of the relationship between cultivation and flourishing. A garden
active roster. He’ s played in 53 NFL games, starting in 12 of them.
“ People know they can rely on me,” Curhan said.“ It’ s a matter of staying ready and doing whatever the team needs me to do.”
It’ s rare for an NFL team to have a Jewish player but nearly unprecedented when there’ s two. That’ s the case for the Panthers, who signed free agent running back AJ Dillon during the offseason. Dillon, a 28-year-old seventh-year pro, respectfully declined an interview.
“ When AJ signed here, our shared Judaism is one of the first things we talked about,” Curhan said.“ I told him that this is the first time since college that I’ ve played with another Jewish player.”
The 6-foot-6, 316-pound offensive tackle grew up in Marin County, California – north of San Francisco – to Greg and Randi Curhan, both East Coast transplants. His family made frequent trips to the East Coast to attend family celebrations.
Curhan became a bar mitzvah at Congregation Rodef Sholom in Marin County, in 2011. He spent several summers at Camp Young Judea( CYJ) in New Hampshire where he built lifelong friendships.
“ During my first or second does not flourish without care. We must plant seeds, tend plants, and gather harvests. In much the same way, a strong community requires ongoing care, generosity, and participation. And just as a garden’ s harvest is meant to be gathered, the gifts we receive are meant to be shared.
Donations from the garden to the Jewish Family Services( JFS) food pantry make this connection especially tangible. Fresh fruits and vegetables provide nutritious food to individuals and families experiencing food insecurity, while also creating a direct link between those who cultivate the land and those who benefit from its bounty. What begins as a seed in the soil can ultimately become a meal on someone’ s table. This is one of the most powerful lessons of Sukkot: what we have finds its greatest purpose when it enriches the lives of others.
The sukkah, the temporary structure many Jews build for this holiday and are encouraged to gather and eat in, reinforces this idea. Its open walls invite us to welcome others inside and to recognize our shared vulnerability. For one week, we step outside the permanence and comfort of our homes and into a structure that reminds us of life’ s uncertainty. In doing so, we are encouraged to appreciate what
year in the NFL with the Seahawks – 10 – 15 friends from CYJ came out to a home game in Seattle,” Curhan said.“ A lot of them live in New York City. Whenever we play the Jets or Giants, I always have a group that will come to see me. It’ s super fun to keep up with my friends.”
He traveled to Israel with a group from CYJ in the summer of 2014. His love for CYJ was one of the reasons he didn’ t play football until high school. Once he aged out of camp, he gave it a chance.
“ I was always one of the biggest kids, if not the biggest kid,” Curhan said.“ The coaches wanted someone as big as me to
The Charlotte Jewish News- October 2026- Page 27
Jennifer and Elena Koss, Shalom Green Volunteers.
play. I loved watching football but had never played it in pads. I really wasn’ t very good that first year as playing on the offensive line was an awkward thing to do. By my junior year, I figured out how to play, got some scholarship offers and kept on playing.”
Curhan, the son of parents who graduated from Ivy League universities, put a strong emphasis on academics. That’ s why he chose Cal-Berkeley, located just 45 minutes from his home in Marin County. He graduated with a bachelor’ s degree in business.
“ During Passover, my parents, in classic Jewish fashion, would tell me to invite whomever to celebrate with us,” Curhan said.
we have while remaining mindful of those who may have less.
The Shalom Park Community Garden offers a similar lesson. It is a place where people come together to cultivate something that extends beyond themselves. Planting, tending, harvesting, and donating become acts of community building. Every volunteer who pulls weeds, waters a tree, gathers produce, or helps deliver a donation contributes to a larger cycle of generosity.
The lessons of the Shalom Park Community Garden reflect an enduring message of Sukkot: the harvest is not simply the end of a growing season. It is an opportunity to extend gratitude beyond ourselves. By cultivating food and sharing it with others, we honor some of the holiday’ s deepest values: welcoming, giving, stewardship, and caring for our community.
The humble fig and the fruitfulness of the garden offer an enduring reminder of what can grow when volunteers, gardeners, donors, and supporters invest in their community. The“ fruits of their labor” reach far beyond the garden, nourishing those in need and demonstrating how gratitude can become generosity. Ultimately, the true measure of a harvest is not only how much we grow, but how much we are willing to share.
Connect with Shalom Green at shalomgreenCLT. org, info @ shalomgreenCLT. org or follow @ shalomgreen _ CLT on Instagram and Shalom Green: Shalom Park Environmental Initiative on Facebook.
Panthers Offensive Lineman Embraces Jewish Heritage
Carolina Panthers offensive lineman Jake Curhan, No. 74, takes the field. Courtesy of the Carolina Panthers.
“ There were at least five of my college teammates that got to experience their first seder coming over to my parents’ house. It was great to be able to share our culture with my teammates.”
Curhan earned All-Pac academic honors at Cal. Following graduation, he signed with the Seattle Seahawks as an undrafted free agent in 2021 and spent his first three seasons in the Pacific Northwest. He then played with the Chicago Bears in 2024, followed by the Arizona Cardinals and joined the Panthers last fall. His second season( 2022) included a playoff loss at San Francisco, his childhood favorite team and a city where family and friends often attended his games.