“Rav Yehuda said in the name of Shmuel: lulav, seven; and sukkah, one” (Sukkah 45b). So begins a discussion as to how often we are to…
The arava, the willow branch, has a dual function on Sukkot. It is the last of four species that make up the mitzvah of “lulav”. Without…
Despite the explicit command to take the lulav on the first day of Sukkot--and to blow the shofar on the first of…
"A child who knows how to shake [the lulav] is obligated to take the lulav" (Sukkah 42a). As we noted in our first "daily daf" on…
We tend to view the mitzvoth of sitting in the sukkah and the arba minim (henceforth referred to as the "lulav") as distinct…
The Rambam in his introduction to the Mishna divides the Oral Law into various categories. He begins with what he terms peirushim hamekubalim…
"And you shall take for yourself on the first day pri etz hadar, a beautiful fruit tree, kapot temarim, branches of date palms, …
My first introduction to the writings of Rabbi Soloveitchik was in yeshiva in Israel when I read Rabbi Abraham Besdin's Reflections of…
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…
"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…
One of the basic requirements of a sukkah is that the s'chach provide more shade than sun. This requirement, however, is more…
As important as classroom education may be, informal education is often more valuable. "The service of Torah is greater than the study thereof…
"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" (…
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;…
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…
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…
The Gemara derives the minimum height of a sukkah from two separate and very distinct sources. In fact, the first “source” is no source…
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…
Masechet Sukkah holds a special place in my heart, being the first tractate I learned cover to cover. Its topics are interesting, wide-ranging,…
Masechet Yoma deals almost exclusively with mitzvoth between man and G-d. Most of the tractate painstakingly records the intricate details of the…
“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…
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…
Thanks to Rabbi Jonathan Ziring for his help with this Daily Daf and with countless other divrei Torah. After seven chapters detailing the Temple…
"Any Torah scholar whose inside is not like his outside [whose piety does not match their learning] is no Torah scholar" (…