Rav Herschel Schachter - Post Yom Kippur Sukkos Shiur 5774 - Part I

For years now it has been the minhag of Rabbi Herschel Schachter to give a shiur on Sukkos in the Y.U. B.M. a couple of hours after Yom Kippur ends. Here are some, not all,  points from last night's shiur. Please pardon (and feel free to correct) my mistakes.

R Schachter

1. The Ramah in the last halachah regarding Yom Kippur writes that one should start building their Sukkah on Motzei Yom Kippur, so this shiur starts with halachot relting to this mitzvah.

2. A sukkah that is over 20 amot high is rare to see, he's never seen it, but would be no good. Rabbi Haskel Lookstein once called him to come and look at a very tall Sukkah they'd built.  If it’s not that high but high it can still be an issue because you need more shade than sun from the walls, or so it seems. Lehalachah as long as there’s more schach than space it’s fine (versus the Oruch HaShulchan who says no it's not). The Ramaz/KJ sukkah was fine.

3. Shulchan Aruch goes like Rambam regarding gidulei karkah shenishtanu - something that grows from the ground and was changed (like wheat baked into bread) not being good for schach, it's pasul miderabanan.   It's a debate betweenR Yehuda vs Chachamim  - and like many disagreements regarding Sukkah come down to it relates to arai vs. kevah.  

4. The Aruch LeNer points out that most Sukkot are kosher according to everyone because they can be viewed as both aria and keva, it’s only a tiny (like 1 and 1 on each side) percent that’s clearly either aria or keva and therefore not okay according to one or the other opinion

5. Does a Sukkah require a mezuza?  If it has to be kevathen yes, but we say it should be davka aria to be kosher, so no, for a regular outside sukkah.

6. If a room is made into a sukkah, inside a house with a ceiling that opens up and the space is covered with schach on Sukkot, we don’t pasul it as being aditrat keva - it's fine as a Sukkah - but it, according to many poskim, needs a mezuzah.

7. Can a sukkah be built on a davar mekabel tuma like a bed?  We say that on bed or, more practically today, on a Chabad Sukkah Mobile is kosher – that's the pashtus.  But another way to view it makes it no good.

8. Ran says you can’t make it on or with something mekabel tumah because you may come to use it as schach. Why is a brick wall okay for walls then, as used by many people in Washington Heights? Ran says  since it’s obvious that it's not kosher to use bricks for schach because that would be a house, it’s okay to use them for the walls.