DC Tefillin Barbie Does Sukkot

In response to social media showing “Barbie’s Dream Sukkah” (see below), I built this sukkah for DC Tefillin Barbie.

I built it the way doll dwellings were created in my youth, repurposing whatever was at hand and roughly the right scale: cardboard, empty spools of thread, scraps of fabric, an old greeting card with a pretty design…. No one I knew had any kind of “Dream” house or car, although Barbies drove or lived in store-bought items that seemed close to her size. And those “Dream” items are just as foreign today as they were back then. So DC Tefillin Barbie‘s sukkah reflects a different dream: a sheltering peace that covers us all.

Cardboard box sukkah for Tefillin Barbie. sign on back wall reads "Help us see that no work truly prospers unless it bring blessing to others...Never seek to dispossess others of what they have planted." Reform Prayerbook. Another sign reads #OccupyJudaism and shows fiddler (as in "on the roof") on Wall Street Bull. Additional decorations are all homemade or repurposed. greenery visble on roof. one wall is fabric. Tiny lulav and etrog on makeshift table. — DC Tefillin Barbie, Sukkah 5784

This Sukkah’s History

For quite a few years, the sukkah we set up outside our house also looked more like cardboard sukkah 5784 than “Barbie Dream Sukkah.”

Wooden frame sukkah with different sized sheets as walls, sign reads "Spread over all Your Canoppy of Peace" — 2010 sukkah in front yard

A few years ago, we gave in and bought a Sukkah Project kit; it’s a marvel of ease in so many ways, but ours retains homemade touches. Two signs in our 5780 sukkah (photos here) were created for the local (DC) “Occupy Judaism” sukkah in 2011. (The wooden sukkah once in our yard was erected at McPherson Square; the materials were absorbed into Occupy K Street after the holiday.)

Kit sukkah with a single, wrap-around-three-sides tarp wall and even root with some rag-tag decorations hanging from roof, including the fiddler and bull sign which hangs in Barbie's sukkah — Inside of our Sukkah Project version 5780

One outside wall of Sukkah Project with canvas sign reading: "Help us see that no work truly prospers unless it bring blessing to others...Never seek to dispossess others of what they have planted." from Reform Jewish Union Prayerbook. — Inside of our Sukkah Project version 5780

I copied those signs for DC Tefillin Barbie’s sukkah.

corner view with greeting card wall and #occupyJudaism sign plus table with lulav, etrog, and siddr — Corner view of Barbie’s sukkah

Another view of Tefillin Barbie, relaxing in sukkah, against fabric wall, seated on box covered in same fabric, feet up on empty spool of thread — Corner view of Barbie’s sukkah

Among the items at hand, as the cardboard sukkah was built, were a button from “Coalition of Concerned Mothers,” remembering individuals killed by police, and a sticker from Prison Radio, reading “In American Prisons Life Means Death.”

See related Meditation for Sitting in the Sukkah, 2019, treating those lost to police as ushpizin, mystical invited guests; Michael Zoosman, of Jews Against the Death Penalty, wrote an ushpizin-related meditation this year, focusing on those executed by the state. These items were added as decorations meant to remind DC Tefillin Barbie and visitors to reject “any sense that we are somehow entitled to dwell in safety…when others cannot.”

Barbie, Her Dreams, and Sukkot

This past Shabbat (9/30/23), Tzedek Chicago explored the concept of p’ri eitz hadar — the goodly fruit. So many interesting ideas and related study were raised. In addition, I found this note from some years back about Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik’s linking Sukkot to the Oral Law and my own prayer for living in the fallible structure of the sukkah and of our individual and collective understanding of Torah.

I wrote at the time (and had completely forgotten): “As we prepare to leave the sukkah, we may hope that next year’s construction will be of even stronger, more beautiful materials erected by even surer hands. But that hope for the future need not throw doubt on the value of this year’s construction or diminish our enjoyment in this year’s dwelling place.” This year, I have really struggled with “the enjoyment of this year’s dwelling place.”

I still haven’t seen the Barbie movie and don’t understand a lot about Barbie culture. But I am find myself hoping there are other Barbies out there enjoying their own “dream” sukkot. May we all dwell — if only for a few moments — in structures that honor life’s fragility and our responsibility to create stronger, more inclusive shelters. And may we find ways to work together to bring the dream closer in the coming year.

Barbie Dream Sukkah

In late September 2023, Hey Alma posted these images on Instagram, saying “this is the vibe we’re going for this year.” Comments varied hugely, from enthusiasm for the “vibe” and the opulence of the sukkah itself to wrath at the AI-generated images. A FB post (not Hey Alma) drew criticism because Barbie’s clothes are not tzniut (modest) and the sukkah is pasul (not kosher). I cannot find any credits for the images, which also appear on this site. I first saw these images, shared by Rabbi Brant Rosen, during Torah study with Tzedek Chicago.

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