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The Blessed Sukkah By Design: Commentary on Sukkot 5785
By Rabbi Jonah Rank, Rosh Yeshivah of Hebrew Seminary
Once a year, I take out a drill and insert new holes into warped wooden beams.
My mission is simple: Get the grooves of those overhead wooden beams to attach naturally to the metal poles that are the perimeter of my family’s sukkah.
Because each of the beams is too short to reach across the width of the sukkah, I pair wooden beams with one another by screwing into the new holes some nuts and bolts. Admittedly, I am often too impatient to take careful measurements, and, rather than operating in a one-and-done modality, drilling (too many) holes instead takes the shape of trial and error.
Image Description: In my family’s sukkah with mostly white paneling, the grooves of warped wooden beams, paired together through nuts and bolts, latch onto the white metal poles at the uppermost perimeter of the sukkah; light fixtures and decorations visibly hang too in the photograph above where grooves and nuts and bolts are indicated.
The results are, eventually, a success: The paired beams fit across the top of the sukkah, allowing us to lay down a bamboo mat to serve as the sekhakh (סכך, the natural roof-like “covering”) of the sukkah. Of course, there are extra and unnecessary holes, but that is due to my carelessness, and the functionality seems not too terribly impacted.
Getting the sukkah to this point is clearly a ritual, but one for which I have never recited a blessing. I swim in the same boat as most Jews who have assembled a sukkah in the last 1,600 years; most of us have never engaged in any acts of prayer that acknowledges the existence of or aspiration for a kosher sukkah until we are just about to sit down and eat in the sukkah. This was not however always the case. The Talmud of the Land of Israel (commonly called the Jerusalem Talmud, the Talmud Yerushalmi [תלמוד ירושלמי]), which preserves rabbinic conversations that ended near the beginning of the 5th century C.E., prescribes:
העושה סוכה לעצמו אומר ברוך אשר קידשנו במצותיו וציונו לעשות סוכה. לאחרים לעשות לו סוכה לשמו
One who makes a sukkah for one’s self says, “Blessed [are you Adonai, our God, Ruler of the Universe,] who has sanctified us through the mitzvot of this [God] and has commanded us to make a sukkah.” [One who makes a sukkah] for others [says,] “Blessed [are you Adonai, our God, Ruler of the Universe,] who has sanctified us through the mitzvot of this [God] and has commanded us to make a sukkah for that person, (that person’s name).” (Berakhot 9:3, 66a of the Vilna edition; see the slightly different version of this teaching in Sukkah 1:2, 4b, of the Vilna edition; and Sukkah 1:2, 52b, of the Venice edition. See also the different versions discussed in the commentary Korban Netan’el [קרבן נתנאל, “The Sacrifice of Nathaniel”] by the German Rabbi Nathaniel Weil [1687-1769] at the end of Sukkah 4:3.)
No form of this blessing appears in the Babylonian Talmud, the later and more popularly studied of Judaism’s two Talmuds. Instead, the Babylonian counterpart prescribes our recitation of the blessing now popularly called “Shehecheyanu” (“שהחינו,” “who has given us life”):
הָעוֹשֶׂה סוּכָּה לְעַצְמוֹ, אוֹמֵר: ״בָּרוּךְ … שֶׁהֶחֱיָינוּ וְקִיְּימָנוּ כּוּ׳״
One who makes a sukkah for one’s self says, “Blessed [are you Adonai, our God, Ruler of the Universe,] who has given us life and sustained us etc. [i.e. and brought us to this moment].” (Sukkah 46a.)
In what appears to be the only other recorded instance of Jewish sages weighing in on the appropriate blessing for when building a sukkah before the 2nd millennium C.E., the same answer is offered in the anonymously authored 8th century Babylonian work Halakhot Gedolot (הלכות גדולות, “Great Halakhot”–halakhot [הלכות] being the plural of halakhah [הלכה, the “path” of Jewish law and customs]).
Though Babylonian sages seemed not to acknowledge the sukkah-building blessing from the Jerusalem Talmud, the French and Spanish Rabbi Menachem HaMe’iri (1249-1315), in his Beyt HaBechirah (בית הבחירה, “The Choicest House”) commentary on Babylonian Talmud, Sukkah 46a, offered his restrained admiration for this short ritual:
בתלמוד המערב אמרו באחרון של ברכות העושה סוכה לעצמו אומר ברוך אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו לעשות סוכה עשאה לאחר מברך אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו לעשות סוכה לשמה… ואין הלכה כדברים אלו שהרי אמרו במסכת מנחות פרק תכלת כל מצוה שעשייתה גמר מצותה מברך על עשייתה כגון מילה אבל מצוה שאין עשייתה גמר מצותה כגון תפילין אינו מברך על עשייתה… ובברכת שהחיינו מיהא נראה מדברי גדולי המחברים שאף העושה לעצמו שופר או מצה או מגילה או ציצית וכיוצא באלו מברך זמן ואף בברייתא מצאנוה כן בהדיא בעושה ציצית או תפילין וגדולי המפרשים כתבו שלא נאמר כן אלא במצוה שיש בעשייתה קצת הנאה כסוכה ולולב שיש בהם הרחבת הלב לעושיהן אבל עשיית מצה ושופר ומגילה אין בעשייתן הנאה אלא טורח יתר והדברים רופפים:
In the Talmud from the west [of Babylonia, i.e., from Jerusalem], they said at the end of [Tractate] Berakhot [as per 9:3, 66a of the Vilna edition], “One who makes a sukkah for one’s self says, ‘Blessed [are you Adonai, our God, Ruler of the Universe,] who has sanctified us through the mitzvot of this [God] and has commanded us to make a sukkah.’ [One who makes a sukkah] for another [says, ‘Blessed are you Adonai, our God, Ruler of the Universe,] who has sanctified us through the mitzvot of this [God] and has commanded us to make a sukkah for (that person’s name)…’” But halakhah does not [follow] these words, for they said in the [Babylonian Talmud,] Tractate Menachot [in the fourth] chapter ([called by the name] Tekhelet [on page 42b]), one blesses during the performance [of a mitzvah] if the performance of [that] mitzvah constitutes the completion of the mitzvah, such as a circumcision. But one does not bless during the performance [of a mitzvah] if the performance of [that] mitzvah does not constitute the completion of the mitzvah, such as [wearing] tefillin [which will be removed later in the day]. But with the blessing of Shehecheyanu, it is seemly, according to the words of the greatest of authors [of halakhic literature], that even if one were to make for one’s self a shofar, matzah, a megillah, tzitzit, or the like, one recites a blessing for the occasion [sanctifying the holiday but not any associated mitzvah]. So too, we found clearly in a baraita [a text external to the Mishnah, edited in the 3rd century in the Land of Israel] with regard to one who makes tzitzit or tefillin. Nonetheless, the greatest of the commentators have written that this [recitation of Shehecheyanu] was only stated with regard to a mitzvah that contains pleasure when performed. Such [examples include] a sukkah or a lulav, from which there comes the expansion of the heart of those who perform these [mitzvot], but not in the making of matzah, a shofar, or a megillah, because there is no pleasure in making them, just excessive displeasure. Alas, those words are weak [in halakhic weight]!
Elsewhere, in commenting on Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 25b, HaMe’iri in fact conceded regarding the Jerusalem Talmud’s blessings for building a sukkah: “אין הלכה כן שהרי חולקת עם סוגיא שבמסכת מנחות” (“This is not the halakhah; behold, it disagrees with a passage that is in [the Babylonian Talmud], Tractate Menachot [42b]”). Still, the words of HaMe’iri make clear that, despite the superior authority that the Babylonian Talmud presumed over the Jerusalem Talmud, the latter was familiar to medieval Jewish scholars. In his Tosafot HaROSh (תוספות הרא״ש, “Additions of the Rabbi Asher”), the French and German Rabbi Asher ben Yechi’el (c. 1259-1317) affirmed very carefully (without endorsement) that the Jerusalem Talmud knew of blessings to be said when building a sukkah. So too, the German Rabbi Alexander Zuslin HaKohen (d. 1349) shared in his Ha’Aguddah (האגודה, “The Handful”) commentary on the Babylonian Talmud (Sukkah 46a) that, despite preferring the Shehecheyanu blessing when an individual has built their own sukkah, “והוא הדין” (vehu haddin, “it is the law”) for one to recite the Jerusalem Talmud’s blessing when building a sukkah for somebody else. Without warning his readers not to take the words at face value, the German Rabbi Mordokhai ben Hillel HaKohen (c.1250-1298), in his Mordokhai (מרדכי, “Mordecai”) commentary on the Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat 137b) states that the Jerusalem Talmud prescribed two blessings to a Jew who builds a sukkah for one’s self. This text offers a composite of the positions of both the Jerusalem Talmud and the Babylonian Talmud:
העושה סוכה לעצמו מברך לעשות סוכה ושהחיינו
One who makes a sukkah for one’s self says, “[Blessed are you Adonai, our God, Ruler of the Universe, who has sanctified us through the mitzvot of this God and has commanded us] to make a sukkah” and “[Blessed are you Adonai, our God, Ruler of the Universe,] who has given us life [and sustained us and brought us to this moment].”
Although some authorities latched onto the idea that words of blessing should accompany us as we build the sukkah, the majority of halakhic authorities eventually found the need for such a blessing to be less than convincing. Born in 1138 in the Iberian Peninsula and dying in 1204 in North Africa, Rabbi Mosheh ben Maimon (also known as Maimonides), in his halakhic code Mishneh Torah (משנה תורה, “Second to the Torah“), did not bother to include a blessing for building a sukkah. Within approximately a century, the German-born Rabbi Ya’akov ben Asher (c. 1270-c.1340), who would live what would amount to be the last approximately 40 years of his life in Castille, now in Spain, attempted to supersede Maimonides’ work with a new code of Jewish law, Arba’ah Turim (ארבעה טורים, “The Four Columns”). In the opening quarter of his work, at Orach Chayyim (אורח חיים, “The Path of Life”) 641, Rabbi Ya’akov ben Asher adjudicated:
העושה סוכה לעצמו אין צריך לברך על עשייתה אף על גב דגרסינן בירושלמי העושה סוכה לעצמו מברך אקב”ו לעשות סוכה עשאה לחבירו מברך על עשיית סוכה סמכינן אגמרא דידן דקאמר שא”צ לברך על עשייתה אבל שהחיינו היה ראוי לברך דתניא העושה סוכה לעצמו מברך שהחיינו.
One who makes a sukkah for one’s self does not need to bless while making it, even though we preserve the tradition in the Jerusalem [Talmud] “One who makes a sukkah for one’s self says, ‘[Blessed are you Adonai, our God, Ruler of the Universe,] who has sanctified us through the mitzvot of this [God] and has commanded us to make a sukkah.’ [One who makes a sukkah] for others [says, “Blessed are you Adonai, our God, Ruler of the Universe, who has sanctified us through the mitzvot of this God and has commanded us] in making a sukkah.’” We rely on our tradition [in the Babylonian Talmud, Sukkah 46a,] which has said that one need not bless when making such [a sukkah], but Shehecheyanu was appropriate to recite, for it was taught by a sage of the Mishnaic period [i.e. between approximately the years 0 and 225 C.E.] that one who makes a sukkah for one’s self recites the blessing Shehecheyanu.
In his own time, the Spanish-born Rabbi Yosef Karo (1488-1575), who had moved to several different countries before finally settling among like-minded kabbalists in the Land of Israel for the last approximately 40 years of his life, understood that this teaching needed an update. In his halakhic code Shulchan Arukh (שלחן ערוך, “Arranged Table”), Rabbi Karo omitted any blessing for building the sukkah but defended his logic in his Beyt Yosef (בית יוסף, “The House of Yosef”) commentary on Arba’ah Turim:
האידנא לא מברכינן שהחיינו על עשיית סוכה כמו שעשו בימי החכמים התנאים והאמוראים וי”ל לפי שכל א’ היה עושה לעצמו לפיכך היה מברך אבל עתה שא’ עושה לק’ אין נראה שיברך העושה והשאר לא יברכו וסמכינן אהא דאמרינן רב כהנא מסדר להו אכסא דקידושא וכן עמא דבר: וכתבו … משמע בברייתא שאם בירך שהחיינו בשעת עשייה אינו מברך כשנכנס לישב בה ותמהו ע”ז דהא צריך לברך משום י”ט כדרך שמברך בשאר י”ט
Nowadays, we do not recite the blessing of Shehecheyanu when making a sukkah as the sages had done in the days of the sages of the Mishnah and the Talmud. This is because each individual had made for themself a sukkah. Thus, each individual had recited a blessing. But, now, when one person may make [a sukkah] for 100 [people], it would not be appropriate for [just] the maker [of the sukkah] to recite the blessing and the remnant not to bless. We rely on that which we say Rav Kahana [was cited teaching in the Babylonian Talmud, Sukkah 22b]: that one arranges a [special] seat for Kiddush [קידוש, i.e., the “sanctification” of the day]. So too, the nation [of Israel, i.e., the Jewish people,] practices. [Several rabbis] wrote that the meaning of the baraita is that, if one had recited the blessing of Shehecheyanu at the time of making [one’s sukkah], then one does not recite [that blessing] upon entering the sukkah to sit in it, but they wondered about this: Is not one supposed to recite the blessing [of Shehecheyanu] on account of it being a Festival day, the way that one blesses the rest of the Festival days?
It feels like an accident of spiritual history that Rabbi Karo turned out to be a leading advocate among many other sages who determined that no blessing should be recited when we build our sukkah. As those little huts we have built have gotten bigger, it stopped making sense for the few builders among us to recite a blessing to which nobody else was privy. Rabbinic authorities determined that the Shehecheyanu blessing was no longer fitting to recite in private; instead, they reserved that great blessing for communal gatherings under stars concealed by sekhakh. What inevitably happened though was that the Shulchan Arukh and other rabbinic codes, rejecting any potential meaningfulness in the Jerusalem Talmud’s blessings, spiritually deserted the Jews amidst sukkah construction and left them without a blessing to warm their souls on such cool nights.
As keepers of the Jewish tradition and students of its history, we possess the tools to reclaim the abandoned blessings sprinkled throughout the lesser studied Jerusalem Talmud. Though these blessings were once rejected in favor of Shehecheyanu, Shehecheyanu is no longer recommended for sukkah building, and most halakhic authorities have offered no substitutions. Long ago though, the Jerusalem Talmud offered us spiritual formulae we can now reclaim.
Building a sukkah was and is a time we dedicate to linking ourselves with a Divine calling that invites to house those who do not yet have homes. The construction of any structure that compels us to practice such holy empathy deserves its own blessing.
And on a personal note: with a little more intentionality, I might drill fewer useless holes by mistake next year.
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