When you invite your ancestors into your sukkah, consider bringing their Jewish languages in, too

On Sukkot, we strengthen our local communities, hosting elaborate meals with relatives and friends and leaving one wall of the sukkah open, symbolizing hospitality. Sukkot also invokes the Jewish community in time. We build temporary structures to commemorate our biblical ancestors wandering through the desert, and we invite ushpizin – symbolic guests.

Traditionally, ushpizin have been biblical characters, kabbalistically associated with particular divine attributes. In my community in Los Angeles, I have noticed and participated in a new approach: summoning the presence of more recent ancesto...