Siman 625

It is a positive commandment from the Torah to dwell in a sukkah for seven days, from the fifteenth of the month of Tishrei until after the twenty-first day of Tishrei, as it is written in Parashat Emor (Leviticus 23:34): "On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the festival of Sukkot, seven days for Hashem... In sukkot shall you dwell for seven days. All the native-born in Israel shall dwell in sukkot, so that your generations shall know that I caused the children of Israel to dwell in sukkot when I brought them out of the land of Egypt" (ibid. 23:42-44).

And it was taught (Sukkah 11b): "For in sukkot I caused the children of Israel to dwell" – they were clouds of glory, these are the words of Rabbi Eliezer. Rabbi Akiva says: They made for themselves actual sukkot. And behold, according to the words of Rabbi Eliezer – it is certainly appropriate to make a remembrance for this great matter, that He surrounded them with clouds of glory. And as they confessed upon their ascent from the exile in Nehemiah (9), where they said: "Even though they made for themselves a molten calf... yet You in Your great mercy did not forsake them in the wilderness; the pillar of cloud did not depart from over them..., and the pillar of fire by night...". For in the clouds of glory there was a literal revelation of Godliness, as Moses our teacher said regarding the matter of the spies: "That You, Hashem, are seen eye to eye, and Your cloud stands over them, and in a pillar of cloud You go before them by day, and in a pillar of fire by night" (Numbers 14:14). But according to Rabbi Akiva who says that the intention is for actual sukkot – what greatness is there in this, that the Torah should say regarding it "In order that your generations shall know that in sukkot I caused to dwell..."? (And Rabbi Akiva holds that a sukkah is not a likeness to the clouds of glory. And clouds of glory are impossible to make, and one does not derive the possible from the impossible. And Rabbi Eliezer holds: we do derive. And they follow their own reasoning in Menachot (82a) regarding the matter of tithes in the Passover of Egypt, see there.)

And the matter is as follows: it is for this reason that we were commanded to make sukkot in the likeness of the sukkot they made for themselves in the wilderness, so that the greatness of the stature of Israel in the wilderness would be revealed and publicized through the mitzvah of the sukkah—that they traveled with the heavy burden of men, women, and children, tens of thousands in a place where it is not in the nature of man to be. As the verse testifies: "not a place of seed." And so the prophet said to Israel: "Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of thick darkness?" – meaning: that in the wilderness I prepared everything for them, and they lacked nothing. And as our teacher Moshe said in Parashat Devarim: "He has known your walking through this great wilderness; these forty years Hashem your G-d has been with you; you have lacked nothing." It emerges that the essence of this mitzvah is the memory of the great journey in the wilderness, where not only was it not a place of seed, but they did not even have permanent houses, only mere sukkot. For this we were commanded to make sukkot in their likeness, so that we may remember the greatness of our stature from the providence of Hashem over us since after the exodus from Egypt.

This is the wording of the Tur: The verse linked the mitzvah of sukkah to the exodus from Egypt, as it did with many mitzvot, because it is something we saw with our eyes and heard with our ears, and no man can deny us. It is what demonstrates the truth of the existence of the Creator, may He be exalted, that He created everything according to His will, and that to Him belongs the power, the dominion, and the capability in the upper and lower worlds to do with them as He desires, as He did with us when He brought us out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders. And the sukkot are the clouds of His glory, with which He surrounded them so that the heat and sun would not strike them. And He commanded us to make sukkot so that we would remember His wonders and His awesome deeds. And even though we left Egypt in the month of Nisan – He did not command us to make a sukkah at that time, because it is the summer days, and it is the way of every man to make for himself a sukkah for shade, and it would not be recognizable that this is for the sake of the mitzvah of the Creator, may He be blessed. Therefore, He commanded us to make it in the seventh month, which is the time of rains, and it is the way of every man to leave his sukkah and return to his house. But we leave the house to dwell in the sukkah, and through this it will be visible to all that the commandment of the King is upon us to perform it. Thus far his words. And this is a correct reason according to the way of the plain meaning.

And furthermore, one may state a proper reason for why the mitzvah is in Tishrei and not in Nisan: because He, may He be blessed, desired to show that even though we are sinners—nevertheless, His providence has not departed from us, and we sit in His shadow, and in the shelter of His wings we find refuge. And just as after the giving of the Torah they made the calf, and despite all this the Holy One, blessed be He, was appeased toward them with the second tablets, and this was on Yom Kippur; and after Yom Kippur He commanded us to make the Mishkan, so that His Presence would dwell among us, as it is written: "And I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel"; and He did not remove from them the clouds of glory, as it is written in Nehemiah which we cited in section 2—so too the Holy One, blessed be He, made for us in this mitzvah a likeness for generations, that even though we sin all year, nevertheless on Yom Kippur He atones for our iniquities when we return in teshuvah. And a sign for the matter: immediately after Yom Kippur He commanded us to make a sukkah, that we should sit in the shadow of the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is written: "In his shadow I delighted and sat"—this is the mitzvah of sukkah; "and his fruit was sweet to my palate"—this is the mitzvah of etrog, as our sages, of blessed memory, said in Midrash Chazit. And to instruct that after all the sins—He, may He be blessed, is with us in love, and watches over us to save us from every trouble and mishap, and He seated us in His holy and pure shadow, and He, may He be blessed, shelters us (and therefore "sukkah" in gematria = Havayah and Adonut). And one should intend in its sitting that the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded us to sit in the sukkah in remembrance of the exodus from Egypt (Magen Avraham and Bach). That is to say: even though regarding all mitzvot, even according to the one who holds that mitzvot require intent, it is sufficient that one intends to fulfill the obligation of the mitzvah, nevertheless regarding sukkah, where the Torah was particular, "In order that your generations shall know that I caused the children of Israel to dwell in sukkot when I brought them out of the land of Egypt," the intent is that at the time of the performance of the mitzvah—we should know and intend the reason for the mitzvah, which is in remembrance of the exodus from Egypt (Machatzit HaShekel). And we have already written in the previous siman that it is a mitzvah to prepare the sukkah and make it—immediately after Yom Kippur, for a mitzvah that comes to your hand, do not let it become leavened, and the zealous are early for mitzvot.