We tend to view the mitzvoth of sitting in the sukkah and the arba minim (henceforth referred to as the "lulav") as distinct…
Sukkah 35: Long Live the Etrog
The Rambam in his introduction to the Mishna divides the Oral Law into various categories. He begins with what he terms peirushim hamekubalim…
Sukkah 34: Don't Cut Yourself
"And you shall take for yourself on the first day pri etz hadar, a beautiful fruit tree, kapot temarim, branches of date palms, …
Sukkah 30: Why Steal a Lulav?
My first introduction to the writings of Rabbi Soloveitchik was in yeshiva in Israel when I read Rabbi Abraham Besdin's Reflections of…
Sukkah 27: I Love My Sukkah
Considering that one is supposed to live in one’s sukkah as one lives in one’s home one need spend very little time in the sukkah. One…
Sukkah 26: I'm Too Busy
"Rabbi Yossi Haglilee used to say: One who is involved in a mitzvah is exempt from another mitzvah" (Sukkah 26a). A mitzvah is entitled to…
Sukkah 22: Seeing Stars
One of the basic requirements of a sukkah is that the s'chach provide more shade than sun. This requirement, however, is more…
Sukkah 21: Time to Go to Bed
As important as classroom education may be, informal education is often more valuable. "The service of Torah is greater than the study thereof…
Sukkah 17: No Walls
"For G-d is bringing you to a good land...a land of wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates; a land of olive oil and date honey" (…
Sukkah 14: Open Your Heart
The halachic system, like all legal systems, is on based on verifiable actions. What one may think when signing a contract is of little bearing;…
Sukkah 11: If You Build It...
While the Jerusalem Talmud rules that one makes a bracha upon construction of a sukkah (Sukkah 1:2), our practice is not to do so, seeing…
Sukkah 6: What's in a Letter?
In 1878, Yehuda Leib Gordon published a poem, Kotzo shel yud, in which he pokes fun at the technicalities of halacha. In his poem, a…
Sukkah 4: Reach for the Top
The Gemara derives the minimum height of a sukkah from two separate and very distinct sources. In fact, the first “source” is no source…
Sukkah 2: It's Who You Know
We eat matza on Pesach to commemorate the matza eaten by our ancestors as slaves in Egypt and as newly freed people. The blowing of the shofar on…
Perfect Practice: Some Opening Thoughts on Masechet Sukkah
Masechet Sukkah holds a special place in my heart, being the first tractate I learned cover to cover. Its topics are interesting, wide-ranging,…
Some Concluding Thoughts on Masechet Yoma
Masechet Yoma deals almost exclusively with mitzvoth between man and G-d. Most of the tractate painstakingly records the intricate details of the…
Yoma 77: Swimming on Yom Kippur
“Our Sages compared the (positive) mitzvoth in the Torah to the limbs of the body and (the negative) to the days of the year” (Makkot 23b…
Yoma 75: The Penalty Box
One of the most challenging roles for a parent or teacher is to figure out how to administer discipline that it fair, effective, and meaningful. The…