Saturday 25 September 2010

The Answer My Friend is Ohel in the Wind

What is this hakpadah re: the walls of the sukkah drifting a bit in the wind?

A Mishnah Sukkah 1:1 teaches us aray, not a firm structure of 20 Amot!

B. Jews lived in ohalim in the wilderness. Did their tent walls not sway a bit in the wind? Isn't the sukkah a commemoration of same?

So what's the big deal if the canvas walls flap a bit - so long as they flap about as much as a typical tent?

Shalom
RRW

3 comments:

micha berger said...

In a blow to us rationalists, the Tur and the SA hold like R' Eliezer, that the sukkah commemorates the clouds that Hashem sent to protect us, not the huts our ancestors built. This is a halachic issue, with the possibility of halachic ruling as it impacts the intent one is supposed to have when sitting in the sukkah. (Mitzvos in which the Torah says "lema'an" (in order that) might even require intent in order to fulfill the mitzvah.)

Se OC 625 in the Tur, SA and AhS.

Anyway, did the clouds flap in the wind?

-micha

micha berger said...

BTW, the problem isn't if the walls "flap a bit", it's if they can flap an entire 3 tefachim (9" or so) in a normal wind for that area.

Are you complaining that people today are more maqpid than what's required by the gemara (Sukkah 24b)?

-micha

Unknown said...

If one accepted the opinion that we all lived in halachically valid sukkot throughout our stay in the midbar, wouldn't one also have to assume that the normally desert climate there was moderated by Clouds of Glory? Without the Clouds, the light- and wind-permeable schach would cause great discomfort at times.