Hot answers tagged sukkah
12
The walls of the sukkah can be constructed anytime you want; you can even leave them up all year, if you're so inclined. (There are even people who have retractable roofs on their houses, so that their sukkah is their dining room or bedrooms or whatever.)
The sechach (plant material used for the roof of the sukkah) is a different story. You can put it up ...
10
Yes. The gemara in the beginning of Sukkah discusses different factors that would invalidate a sukkah, but transparency isn't an issue. You can also make the walls with 3 horizontal strings, each within 3 tefachim from the other one. Though if it was completely transparent, i.e. invisible, perhaps there would be an issue that no one could tell they're in a ...
10
I don't have an explicit answer, but since women are not obligated to sit in the sukkah, and we know that women are obligated to fulfill negative commandments, it would stand to reason that eating out of the Sukkah would be a Bittul Asseh.
9
I'll start with the usual caveat: CYLOR. The more so since someone local will be more familiar with your specific situation.
It's pretty basic to the definition of a sukkah that it be under the sky. So a sukkah under a balcony, as much of a good-faith effort as it may be (and as much as G-d might appreciate the thought), simply isn't a sukkah - no more so ...
8
It looks like a general Chassidic custom.
The Minchas Elazar writes that it is a tradition from the Ba'al Shem Tov. He explains the mishna that says that one stays is "comparable to a slave who mixes wine for his master and he spills it in his face." in a novel way.
He says that there are two ways to explain "he spills in his face", is it the master ...
8
http://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=49716&st=&pgnum=30
Per the Machtzis HaShekel Siman 640:9 it is preferable to eat in a
Sukkah with a Schlack, over eating in the house when it is raining
since there are Poskim that consider it a Kosher Succah.
The Bikurrei Yaakov Siman 626:12 says also that it is preferable to
eat in a ...
7
Don't take my word on the translation, but Shulchan Aruch 634:2 says:
If it's round, it must contain within it a square of seven by seven t'fachim.
And MB adds that any other shape has the same rule and that one need not sit in the contained square.
You ask about wall length, though. For a circle, a contained square of 7×7 means, Baer Hetev and others ...
7
Actually, I don't know why you'd have to ask specifically about the USSR. Wouldn't the same question apply to any feudal-type government, where the king is in principle the owner of all of the land in the kingdom? And AFAIK there's no concept in halachah that you have to ask him for permission to build a sukkah.
I think the reason might be, building on ...
7
The Posuk does not say that there was more sun than shade. On the contrary the Posuk says "Vayeshev Tacteho Bzel" which translates into "He sat under it in the shade.
The following Posuk says that a Kikoyon was shade upon him, and the Radak explains that this happened 40 days later when the Sukka dried out and therefore it was not providing shade anymore.
6
According to Halacha (Orthodox Jewish Law) you may build the Sukkah from 30 days prior to the Yom Tov. If it was made more than 30 days before the holiday, and you do not have in mind that it is being made for Succos, all you got to do is remove some Sechach and replace it and have in mind that it is for Succos and then it is Kosher. If it was put up anytime ...
6
I don't have time to consult the sources right now, but if memory serves correctly, there is no problem disassembling a sukkah during Chol HaMoed. (There are actually portable sukkahs on the market, which are designed to be taken apart and reassembled during the holiday.) You would only run into problems if you wanted to use the materials for some other ...
6
Nope. If the s'chach isn't valid, it's not a sukkah.
The practical advantage is, you can have all sorts of nice stuff in the sukkah; if it starts to rain, just put up the tarp; as soon as it stops raining you can pull off the tarp and get right back to your mitzva. Whereas if you didn't have the tarp, you have to rush everything out of your sukkah when it ...
6
You can eat in a sukkah standing up (as regards the lawa of sukkot). The word 'sitting' is used to imply a sort of permanence of dwelling, but if one eats in a sukkah while standing he certainly says a bracha and fulfils his mitzva. (See Aruch Hashulchan OC 643:3)
5
If it's the day immediately after Sukkos (Shemini Atzeres in Israel, Simchas Torah outside it), then there is indeed a problem with eating in the sukkah, in that it resembles "adding to the mitzvah" (although technically it isn't, because there is no intention to perform the mitzvah). The recommended approach in that case is to disqualify it by removing some ...
5
The Rema (Orach Chayyim 624:5 and 625:1) quotes the Maharil's customs to start building the sukkah the night after Yom Kippur, to go from mitzvah to mitzvah; the following day, to build it completely, so as not to delay an available mitzvah.
This is a custom from the Ashkenazi world regarding the ideal time to build the sukkah, but the sukkah is certainly ...
5
Anything that grows from the ground
and is not 'mekabel tumah' is a
candidate for scach[sic].
These are two of the three basic requirements. The last is that the material not be currently attached to the ground. This disqualifies, for example, building a suka next to a vineyard and stretching some vines (which fill the other two criteria) over as ...
5
The Shulchan Aruch O.C. 639:2) requires a sukkah absolutely only by a significant amount of bread, and the 5 grains when you are subjectively kovea seuda (the Magen Avraham doesn't require kvias seuda). The halachic relation of rice to the other 5 grains is that rice satiates enough to get a mezonos, but is not similar in its use as a seuda. It would not ...
5
I use strands of white holiday lights like these or
these (often cheap on December 26!), powered by a heavy-duty extension cord that is plugged in in the garage, with foil plastic and electrical tape around plugs that are outside (the second strand plugged into the first, etc). I've had no safety problems since starting to wrap the plugs; before I did ...
4
Here's my understanding of what you have to do, based on setting one of these up, with Rabbinic guidance, for a few years in college. I've never studied the relevant laws in depth, but I believe based on what I learned in practice from my Rabbi that under normal conditions, the following procedure will do the trick. Ask your Rabbi to be sure. This will be a ...
4
Trees branches and bamboo poles are popular. I most prefer evergreen tree branches because they look the prettiest and may even have a nice aroma. Anything that grows from the ground and is not 'mekabel tumah' is a candidate for scach. Fruit is an example of an item that is 'mekabel tumah.'
mekabel tumah = something that can become ritually impure
4
In theory it should work with the following qualifications:
1- Your car roof width from the far inner door to the schach area is 4 amos or less (for dofen akuma)
2- Your car doors are less than 3 tefachim off the ground (for mechitza- gediim bok'im)
Like you mentioned, you need the second door for the third wall, just resting it on the roof won't help. ...
4
The Rebbe actually addressed this question in a letter dated 7 Cheshvan, 5715 [1954]:
Re Sleeping in the Succah In order to safeguard and inspire a greater
feeling toward the Succah, sleeping in it is not practiced by us. The
basis for this is two-fold: First, we have a rule that Hamitztaer
putter min HaSuccah (suffering exempts one from dwelling ...
4
Generally speaking, treat the sukkah as your dining room. If you had a massive leak in your dining room roof, you would eat elsewhere (potentially even going to a neighbor's house).
There is a stricter standard for eating one piece of bread on the first night of sukkos, but otherwise:
If it rains enough that the rain is ruining your soup
If it's severely ...
4
Sounds to me like Shulchan Aruch 626:3:
העושה סוכה למטה בבית תחת הגג שהסירו הרעפים אף על פי שנשארו עדיין העצים הדקים שהרעפים מונחים עליהם כשירה
See also Rama and Mishna B'rura there, or your favorite nos'e kelim. But as this is for you a practical matter, CYLOR.
4
When using panels, usually people use 4 foot by 8 foot panels. (8 feet tall is perfect for height). Thus 8 X 8 or 8 X 12 is common in size.
If you do it your way, with tarps, you are not limited to 4X8 panels. However most things you might buy as beams (wood at least) come in 8 feet long. So 8 feet tall makes sense.
Also, a simple cube 8 X 8 X 8, is ...
4
You are implying a number of questions that have dependent, but distinct answers:
1. Why can't rafters be sechach?
Although on a Torah level rafters are valid sechach, the sages prohibited using "nesarim" (manufactured wood planks) which are thicker than 4 hand-breadths, suspecting people may see no reason to sit in a sukkah if their own home's roof is ...
4
This year, I ran an outdoor-rated extension cord (not hard to come by) out a window (through the already-insulated gap where an air conditioner is) to the sukkah and plugged in a five-bulb lighting string, also outdoor-rated. I used yellow anti-bug CFLs, again outdoor-rated.
When I've asked in Home Depot about plugging things in outside, I've gotten the ...
4
Shulchan Aruch Harav Siman 639:
(See especially the last sentence of 9, and note that 10 doesn't really apply today since we no longer celebrate this way. But I included it since it's instructive.)
9) At present, people at large have adopted the practice of following
a lenient approach when it comes to sleeping [in the sukkah). Only
those who are ...
4
Shulcan Aruch HaRav 638:12
All the above [leniencies] apply [only] to the decoration of the sukkah, but not to the branches used for the actual s'chach. A stipulation to make use of them is never effective, even if the sukkah collapses during the eight days of the festival, for the prohibition against [using] this is of Scriptural origin, as stated ...
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