Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Join the 2% of readers!SUPPORT OUR WORK!
Culture

You can buy Sukkot gift boxes that say ‘tuchus’ on Amazon

Due to backwards letters, the party favors sold on Amazon are a bit cheeky

Talk about ass backwards.

For the upcoming holiday of Sukkot, an Amazon seller is offering cute cardstock “Happy Sukkot Gift Boxes” complete with the festival’s name in Hebrew. Or well, that was the intent.

Since the Hebrew is rendered the wrong way, the boxes, in fact, say “Tuchus.” Jewish Twitter is laughing its butts off.

To be completely fair to HOWAF, the company producing these party favors, they are continuing a long, well-meaning, but ultimately clueless tradition of mass-produced goods for the Jewish holidays. It’s a longstanding custom to include shofars, menorahs and challahs on all party favors, regardless of whether or not the chag is at all associated with these objects. (An image of the Sukkot gift boxes in action shows a man breaking matzo, ’cause, close enough.)

Much cheeky humor has emerged from these cultural crossed wires.

Butt — sorry, but — it’s not quite as common to see Hebrew blunders that spell a word that is, by itself, funny.

Hebrew letters, which are read right to left, can be tricky, as members of Jewish Voice for Peace learned the hard way at a recent encampment Seder. Though these tuchus gift boxes, unlike many unforced errors from retail giants, may give one pause.

What is Sukkot if not an occasion sitting in a sukkah in remembrance of our ancestors? When we shake the lulav, do we not also shake our booties (at least a little) by the s’chach? Already I am thinking about alternate applications for an etrog emoji. 

While some may think it a kind of sacrilege to insert a word so base into a fundamental Jewish holiday (all puns intended), these boxes are still sure to be a sought-after party favor for the holiday — provided guests don’t mind being the butt of the joke.

Are you one of our 2%?

Did you know that only 2% of Forward readers donate to support our nonprofit newsroom? That 2% make it possible for millions to read the Forward without a paywall or subscription — removing any barriers to the full and fair Jewish story.

But while the Forward is free to read, it isn’t free to produce. Big stories — like deep dives into the antisemitism data, political scoops or reporting trips to college campuses  —  take months of research and fact-checking. All while we keep you informed of what you need to know each day.

Don’t just read the Forward — invest in it. Support our work today!

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Forward Publisher & CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.