Sukkah

Embark on a journey of Jewish learning and discovery, exploring the depth of our Sukkah resources, where tagged items including audio, programs, and podcast episodes await your exploration.

Sukkah 48: Pass the Water

Rabbi Jay Kelman

In a recent post, we discussed the opposition to the mitzvah of placing the arava on the altar. An even greater dispute arose vis a vis the mitzva of nisuch hamayim, the mitzvah to pour water on the altar in conjunction with the morning sacrifice on…

Article

Mar 28, 2014

Sukkah 46: A Daily Dose of Blessings

Rabbi Jay Kelman

“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 make a bracha on these mitzvoth. Shmuel, the Gemara explains, is of the view that since there is one…

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Mar 26, 2014

Sukkah 45: Seeing Double

Rabbi Jay Kelman

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 this lowly branch, it makes little difference how beautiful the etrog may be—as without the…

Article

Mar 24, 2014

Sukkah 43: My Lulav Is Better Than Yours

Rabbi Jay Kelman

Despite the explicit command to take the lulav on the first day of Sukkot--and to blow the shofar on the first of day of the seventh month-- with no exception made if these days fall on Shabbat, our practice is not…

Article

Mar 23, 2014

Sukkah 38: Shake the Lulav

Rabbi Jay Kelman

"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 masechet sukkah here, the mitzva of chinuch, training children in the proper observance…

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Mar 19, 2014

Sukkah 36: Lulav in the Sukkah

Rabbi Jay Kelman

We tend to view the mitzvoth of sitting in the sukkah and the arba minim (henceforth referred to as the "lulav") as distinct mitzvoth each focusing on different, perhaps even contradictory aspects of Sukkot. The taking of the…

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Mar 18, 2014

Sukkah 35: Long Live the Etrog

Rabbi Jay Kelman

The Rambam in his introduction to the Mishna divides the Oral Law into various categories. He begins with what he terms peirushim hamekubalim miSinai, explanations that were received from Sinai. These are explanations of the biblical text that…

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Mar 17, 2014

Sukkah 34: Don't Cut Yourself

Rabbi Jay Kelman

"And you shall take for yourself on the first day pri etz hadar, a beautiful fruit tree, kapot temarim, branches of date palms, anaf etz avot, twigs of a plaited tree, and arevei nachal, willows of the brook, and rejoice…

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Mar 13, 2014

Sukkah 30: Why Steal a Lulav?

Rabbi Jay Kelman

My first introduction to the writings of Rabbi Soloveitchik was in yeshiva in Israel when I read Rabbi Abraham Besdin's Reflections of the Rav. One of the ideas therein that immediately struck me was how the Rav noted that if Orthodox…

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Mar 11, 2014

Sukkah 27: I Love My Sukkah

Rabbi Jay Kelman

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 “who writes books, tefillin or mezuzot, they and their wholesalers and retailers and all …

Article

Mar 6, 2014