Sukkah 032

1:
When the Bet Mikdash was functioning the first day of Sukkot could fall on any day of the week. This was true also for about 250 years after the destruction of the Bet Mikdash. During the latter part of the 4th century CE, however, when circumstances in Eretz-Israel made it most problematic to fix the beginning of each month by human testimony, the President of the Sanhedrin, Hillel II, instituted the fixed Jewish calendar that is still in use to this day. The mechanisms of the Jewish calendar make it possible for the first day of Sukkot to fall on a Monday, a Tuesday, a Thursday or a Saturday, but not on a Sunday, a Wednesday or a Friday.

2:
For reasons that need not detain us now it became the custom in the diaspora not to use the lulav when the first day of Sukkot falls on Shabbat, for fear that people would carry them through the streets from their homes to the synagogue, an act which is prohibited on Shabbat. (Since in the diaspora there were two 'first days', as it were, when the first day of Sukkot fell on Shabbat the lulav could be used on Sunday, which was also YomTov.)

3:
It is not at all clear why this diaspora custom has been perpetuated in Eretz-Israel today. As our present mishnah makes very clear, the lulav was used when the first day of Sukkot fell on a Saturday. (And there are now more and more 'daring' people who are, in fact, doing so. Since this is not going to happen again until the year 2020 we can wait patiently to see how this matter develops.)

4:
Our mishnah describes the arrangements that were made to enable the lulav to be used in the synagogue when the first day of Sukkot fell on Shabbat. The people would bring their lulavs to the synagogue on Friday and there they would be kept overnight. Each person had some means of identifying for himself his own lulav (perhaps a note with his name on it attached to the lulav). This arrangement was necessary because, as we have noted before [Sukkah 025], the Torah requires each person to use his own lulav on the first day of the festival. As our mishnah points out, this requirement only applies to the first day; throughout the rest of the festival one can 'borrow' someone else's lulav in order to fulfill the mitzvah.

5:
As we shall see in the subsequent mishnahs and in Chapter 4, this arrangement applies only when the first day of Sukkot falls on Shabbat. It does not apply to a Shabbat that falls during the rest of the week of Sukkot: on Shabbat Ḥol ha-Mo'ed the lulav is not used ("for fear that people would carry them through the streets from their homes to the synagogue, an act which is prohibited on Shabbat.") The Torah [Leviticus 23:40] commands:

Thus, the mitzvah of lulav may override the restriction of Shabbat "on the first day", but not on any other Shabbat during Sukkot.

Here is a query that I received from Reuven Artzi:

On my kibbutz Muslim Arabs from Lower Galilee have been working in the building department for several years now. They are very much accepted among us and the relationship is good. In order to complete the erection of the communal sukkah someone asked two of the group to help erect the sukkah, including laying the s^ekhakh — reed mats designed for this purpose. Today I heard that the rabbi determined that the s^ekhakh is not valid because non-Jews were involved. Do the rules concerning Yeyn nesekh [wine touched by non-Jews] apply also to non-Jews taking part in the erection of a sukkah? The rabbi also said to someone that by doing "a certain action" it would be possible to "make the crooked straight". Since we are studying Tractate Sukkah I have permitted myself to approach you with this question.

I respond:

It is difficult for me to plumb the depths of the local rabbi's thinking in this matter. No one would disagree that is is most desirable that a sukkah should be erected by Jews for Jews; for ultimately the sukkah serves to fulfill the mitzvah of residing in the sukkah. But I do not know of a reason to invalidate a sukkah just because it was erected by a non-Jew.

It would be preferable if Jews would delight in erecting the sukkah and set it up themselves in order to fulfill the mitzvah of the festival. (The mitzvah is to wrap ourselves in a tallit and we would not ask a non-Jew to tie the tzitzit for us, would we? The same, in my opinion, should apply to all preparations for a mitzvah.)

But I know of no reason to invalidate a sukkah for such a reason. If the members of the kibbutz want non-Jews to assist them in erecting their sukkah and if they want to host a non-Jew in their sukkah during the festival there can be no objection, and the sukkah would not be invalidated. When all is said and done we recite the benediction over residing in the sukkah during the festival, not over erecting it.

It could be that the rabbi suggested relaying the s^ekhakh in order to 'validate' the sukkah, since, as we have learned, the s^ekhakh is the main part of the sukkah. If the members act in this way they will have a valid sukkah according to all opinions. "And great is harmony."

Concerning your comparison of the erection of a sukkah with yeyn nesekh — it has no basis whatsoever.

If you have not already done so, please do click on this link. Thank you.

I had hoped that we would have been able to complete our study of Tractate Sukkah before the beginning of the festival, but real life sometimes intervenes! But I do wish everybody a very happy Sukkot, the season of our happiness.