Dvar Torah for Sukot

Based on Likutey Halakhot, Hilkhot Sukkah 1

The sukkah is so named because of the skhakh (ceiling). (Rashi, Sukkah 2a)
The mitzvah of sukkah is essentially to eat, drink and sleep in it. (Rashi, Sukkah 20b)

The minimum area of a sukkah required by halakhah (Jewish law) is such that a person can, well, eat, drink and sleep in it. There is no upper limit on the sukkah’s area. Reb Noson explains that there is a minimum of physical activity that one must include in the boundaries of holiness. However, one should include as much of his physical life as he can in those boundaries.

In contrast, the halakhah does prescribe a maximum as well as a minimum height for the sukkah. The maximum height is 20 amot and the minimum height is 10 tefachim (approximately 30 feet and 2.5 feet, respectively). Two of the reasons the Talmud gives for the maximum height are [a] because “the eye must be able to see [the skhakh];” [b] “one does not build a home taller that 20 amot unless he is making it a permanent home, and we require the sukkah to be a temporary dwelling” (Sukkah 2a). The reason a sukkah may not be lower than 10 tefachim is because “a person does not live in a vile dwelling” (ibid., 4a). (The height of the sukkah is the distance from the floor to the underside of the skhakh.)

Throughout his writings Rebbe Nachman refers to a person’s spiritual knowledge as the Hebrew letter yod, whose numerical value is 10. There are two components of one’s spiritual knowledge. One is what a person has already comprehended and integrated into his life. The other component is the spiritual knowledge that one is on the threshold of acquiring. “The eye must be able to see [the skhakh].” The easy visibility of the skhakh is to remind one to be careful not to overreach his capabilities. As large as the area of one’s sukkah may be, if the skhakh is too high the sukkah is not kosher, and all that he brought within its walls, all that he had thought was in the boundaries of holiness, is not in the sukkah at all.

The other lesson the height limitation of skhakh teaches us is to avoid complacency. We have written previously that Rebbe Nachman himself once said, “When I started to serve Hashem (God) I never knew that such concepts [such as I know now] existed. Who knows what concepts are yet to be perceived” (Rabbi Nachman’s Wisdom #159). Often times a person becomes aware of concepts for which he is unprepared. They may be true, satisfying and even far beyond anything others are aware of. These are all reasons why he may be lulled into complacency and fail to seek further spiritual growth. However, “we require the sukkah to be a temporary dwelling”—one must always realize that there is more to be accomplished in the pursuit of Jewishness.

Even though we are required to limit the height of our skhakh, we must not let it get too low. The tefach (handsbreadth) is the smallest unit of length referred to by the Torah. As one-sixth of the amah (ell) the tefach represents the smallest measure of spiritual awareness. When a person works at putting that awareness into every area of his life he attains the minimum holiness a person must have in order to be considered a mensch. If one’s mindset does not include that minimum of holiness, he is living life in a body which is a “vile dwelling” and “a person does not live in a vile dwelling.”

agutn yomtov!
chag sameach!