“The Adventures of Hofni the Dreamer,” Eden Newspaper, 1925 This is the 1925 edition of the cartoon strip “The Adventures of Hofni the Dreamer” that appeared in in the Hebrew language children’s newspaper Eden. Eden was published in New York between 1924 and 1926. “The Adventures of Hofni the Dreamer” was written and illustrated by S. Ruskin. In this comic, Hofni, frustrated that he is unable to build a Sukkah in New York, dreams of celebrating the festival in Israel — the land of the pioneers. While the classroom and the city of New York are depicted as grey and gloomy, Israel is portrayed as a sunny and welcoming place. The aerial image of Israel shows a vast, almost uninhabited land with a few Middle-Eastern style buildings. The muscular pioneers are shown smiling in front of their tents, which are a modern interpretation of the Sukkot in which the Jews dwelt in the desert.
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Eden –The newspaper Eden was published in New York between 1924 and 1926. The Hebrew-language newspaper included varied content and, for the first time, rich graphics. According to its editor, Daniel Parsky, Eden was the first newspaper to include crosswords in Hebrew. Eden was a Zionist newspaper, and many stories and reports, such as “The Adventures of Hofni the Dreamer,” described the life of the pioneers in Israel and the activities of the Zionist movement.
Sukkot and the Four Species - The Festival of Sukkot (Tabernacles) has two central commandments. The first is that Jews should live in a temporary abode (Sukkah) for seven days (eight days outside of Israel). The second is that on every day of the festival, Jews take the Four Species (Arba’at HaMinim) in hand and make a blessing over them.
Each of the Four Species has certain requirements for them to be fitting (Kosher) for the commandment (Mitzvah). According to tradition, the buyer should check that the requirements are present in each of the species. The Four Species consist of the Lulav (palm branch), the Etrog (citrus fruit), Hadass (myrtle branches) and Aravah (willow branches).
