Page 224 - Chayei Adam LAYOUT sivan 5782

Chayei Adam - K’lal 146 - Laws of the Succah

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]1[ The Torah says “You shall sit in succos for seven days… So that you shall
know that I put the Jewish people in succos when I took them out from Egypt...”
At first, the Torah writes תֹּכ ֻּסַּב (succos without the letter ‘vav’), and here it writes
ּ ו ת
ּ
י ִת ְּב ַ ׁשֹוה כ ֻּסַּב (“I placed them in succos” with a ‘vav’), to teach us that they
dwelled in two types of succos; one being the succah [protection] of the clouds of
glory, and the other, referring to actual succah booths when they sieged the cities
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of Sichon and Og. Hashem commanded us to observe this mitzva in the month
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of Tishrei and not in Nisan which was the time of year we left Egypt, since in the
summertime, it is not clear that it is for the purpose of the mitzva as it is normal
to sit in succos [to shade oneself] from the heat, which is not the case in Tishrei
when the wintertime has arrived, and it is [therefore] clear that [his intent] is for
the purpose of the mitzva. 4

םדו רשב
1. Vayikra 23:42-43 to R’ Eliezer it was called such because the
ד
Jews built little huts in which to sleep. R’ Akiva
2. The gemara (Succah 111b) records a however held that the Torah is telling us that
dispute of tanaim in understanding this posuk when they left Raamses, they were surrounded
and what it is that we are to remember. by the clouds of glory. The Rokeach cites this
ה
According to R’ Akiva, the Jews dwelled in understanding as well, but then offers an
little booths which they built when they alternate understanding which is quoted by
travelled in the desert. Accordingly, the Torah the Elya Rabba: After we left Mitzrayim and
is instructing us to recall how our basic entered Eretz Yisroel we camped in small
ו
existence was preserved in the desert. R’ booths which we built as we laid siege to
א
Eliezer however disagrees and explains that conquer the cities of Og and Sichon. The
during our forty year sojourn we were significance in remembering this is that we
surrounded on six sides by the clouds of glory shouldn’t take Eretz Yisroel for granted,
ב
which protected us from the elements and thinking that we simply inherited it from
paved the way for our travel. The mitzva of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, but rather, we
succah, he explains, was given for us to recall should realize that we worked hard to take it
the protection of these clouds. The Tur and over.
ח
Shulchan Aruch record only this opinion.ג Although R’ Eliezer and R’ Akiva disagree,
The posuk (Bamidbar 33:5) tells us that the Chayei Adam here suggests that the Torah
when the B’nei Yisroel left Mitzrayim, they commands us to remember both types of
travelled from Raamses to Succos. The succos - the clouds of glory and the physical
Mechilta (Parshas Bo 14) tells us that according booths. This, he explains, is alluded to by the

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