Q & A: Sitting In The Sukkah

Question: I hope you will not mind answering several questions regarding the mitzvah of sitting in the sukkah. What is the reason for sitting in the sukkah? Are we required to sit in it whenever we eat? Is one allowed to travel during the week of the holiday to a place where no sukkah is available?

Moshe Jakobowitz
Brooklyn, NY

Answer: The Sage Hillel said (Avot 2:6), “Lo habayshan lomed” – one who is embarrassed [to ask] does not learn. Asking questions is a positive trait that helps one in the pursuit of scholarship.

The Torah gives us the basic reason for the commandment to sit – or rather to dwell – in the sukkah. As stated in Vayikra (23:43), it is “Lema’an yed’u doroteichem ki vasukkot hoshavti et Bnei Yisrael be’hotzi’i otam me’Eretz Mitzrayim, Ani Hashem Elokeichem” – So that your [future] generations will know that I made the Children of Israel dwell in booths when I took them out of the land of Egypt, I am the L-rd your G-d.” Thus we see that through observing this mitzvah, we remember, as we are commanded, all the wonders that G-d wrought for His people (i.e., our ancestors) when they were delivered from Egypt.

The Rambam notes in his Moreh Nevuchim (III:43 – only an excerpt is given here) that the festival of Sukkot comes at the culmination of a season of intense labor in the fields, when one is free from pressing agricultural chores and is able to rest. At that time of the year, this Feast of Tabernacles reminds us of the miracles G-d provided for us in the wilderness, and teaches us to remember the difficult days once we have reached days of prosperity. Thus, we leave our houses to dwell in booths in the manner of inhabitants of deserts, away from the “elegant houses, in the best and most fertile land” which we now enjoy thanks to “the kindness of G-d, and because of His promises to our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” We are taught a lesson in humility and the need to express gratitude to G-d.

The commandment is to dwell in the sukkah for seven days, but in the galut (the Diaspora) we traditionally sit in the sukkah also on the eighth day. However, because of sfeika de’yoma – since it could not be determined whether that day was to be considered as Sukkot or Shemini Atzeret – we do not say the blessing “Leishev basukkah” (see Shulchan Aruch Orach Chayyim 668:1; also Ba’er Heitev ibid. regarding various minhagim on dwelling and eating in the sukkah on Shemini Atzeret).

There are instances when we are not required to eat and dwell in the sukkah with the exception of the first night. The Rema (op. cit. 639:5) rules that we have to make Kiddush in the sukkah and eat food in the amount of a kezayit, a standard quantity commonly estimated to be the size of an olive. (See the Mishna Berura ad loc., who quotes in great detail the various opinions based on the Rema as to whether we wait, and how long we have to wait “for the rain to stop” that first night.) This case is a perfect example of a “p’tur” – a situation that exempts us from the obligation to fulfill a mitzvah. We abide by the general rule expressed by Raba (Sukkah 26a) that “Mitzta’er patur min hasukkah,” meaning that one who is in discomfort [because of conditions in the sukkah] is exempt from the obligation to dwell in the sukkah.

The Talmud (ibid.) also states that those who are traveling by day are free from the obligation of sukkah by day but are liable at night. Those who travel at night are released from the obligation at night but are bound to it by day. Those who travel by day as well as at night (i.e., a long journey) are exempt both by day and at night. People who travel in the performance of a mitzvah, a religious errand, are exempt both by day and at night (even if they only travel by day – see Rashi ad loc.).

Rashi (ibid. 26a) stresses the rule that applies to travel based on the explanation in the Gemara (ibid. 28b) regarding the verse (Vayikra 23:42), “Basukkot teshvu shiv’at yamim,” in booths shall you dwell seven days. The Gemara states that one should make the sukkah his permanent abode all seven days. Whence do we know this? From the fact that the Sages understood “teshvu” to mean “ke’ein taduru,” namely, that it implies “to dwell there in the manner you ordinarily live.” Therefore, according to Rashi, just as we do not refrain from travel all year long, so do we not refrain from travel on Sukkot.