One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
שׁוֹפָר וְסֻכָּה וְלוּלָב
Shofar, Sukkah and Lulav 6
Sefer Zemanim · What it means to dwell in the sukkah - teshvu k'ein taduru, live there as you live at home
7
Days you eat, drink, and sleep in the sukkah
1
K'zayit of bread fulfills the first-night obligation
8
Days we dwell in the sukkah in the diaspora
4x4
Handbreadths - reduce the sukkah to store utensils on day seven
Part 1Dwelling, not visiting
- Live there all seven days. Eat, drink, and sleep in the sukkah, by day and by night; a meal outside is forbidden, though a snack of a k'beitzah or less is permitted. (6:1)
- No sleep outside at all. One may not sleep outside the sukkah even a brief nap; water and fruit may be taken outside, but refraining even from water is praiseworthy. (6:1)
- Ordinary life, relocated. A person reads in the sukkah, but for study that demands deep concentration he may step outside so his mind is settled; prayer may be said inside or out. (6:4)
RememberThe sukkah is the mitzvah of the whole self - eating and sleeping become the service.
Part 2The first night and the table
- One night is a command, the rest is open. Eating in the sukkah the first night is an obligation, fulfilled with a k'zayit of bread; afterward, eating a formal meal is voluntary, like matzah on Pesach. (6:2)
- The table must come inside. Sitting with your head and most of your body in the sukkah while the table is in the house is as if you never ate there - a decree lest you be drawn after your table. (6:3)
- True even in a large sukkah. The rule holds regardless of size; the concern is not space but the pull of where a person is really anchored. (6:3)
RememberBring the table, not just the head - a person is led by his center of gravity.
Part 3Rain, the blessing, and the eighth day
- Rain sends you home. One may leave when enough rain falls in to spoil a cooked dish, even a dish of beans; if you left mid-meal or asleep, you need not return until you finish, or until dawn. (6:5)
- Do not dismantle too soon. One should not take the sukkah apart after the seventh day's meal; from the afternoon on, utensils may be removed, or the space reduced by four handbreadths. (6:6)
- The blessing is to dwell. Before sitting, one blesses "leishev basukkah"; on the first night the order over wine is kiddush standing, leishev basukkah, then shehecheyanu. (6:7)
- No blessing over a doubt. On Shemini Atzeret in the diaspora we dwell but do not bless leishev basukkah; likewise a tumtum and androgynous, whose obligation is uncertain. (6:8)
RememberThe law that commands you to dwell will not let dwelling become misery.