Delving into the Daf by Rabbi Avrohom Sebrow

Delving into the Daf

A Sukkah for a Baby

By Rabbi Avrohom Sebrow

Shammai’s daughter-in-law gave birth over Succos (Yevamos 15a). She was recuperating in the house. Shammai managed to make a hole in the roof over the bed she was resting in and placed s’chach over that hole. It is clear that the new mother did not need to sit in the sukkah. If so, for whom was this sukkah intended?

The Maharshal suggests that there was an older boy around four years old present at the house. Although Hillel is of the opinion that this boy who still needed his mother did not need to sit in the sukkah, Shammai felt otherwise. It would seem from the simple reading of the Gemara that Shammai felt that this was a real obligation. In fact, this point is disputed.

However, it does seem interesting that the Gemara makes no mention of this mysterious older brother. Therefore, the P’nei Yehoshua suggests that the sukkah was for the newborn baby boy.

At first, the P’nei Yehoshua is incredulous. How could there be a mitzvah of chinuch for a one-day-old baby?! He is forced to explain that this is a unique mitzvah that applies nowhere else. Since the verse uses the word “Kol” in describing which men should sit in the sukkah, the Sages enacted a requirement that every male no matter the age should sit in the sukkah! However, Hillel disagrees with this point, and the halacha is in accordance with his opinion.

It is interesting to contemplate, according to the P’nei Yehoshua, what exactly was the newborn baby doing that required a sukkah according to Shammai? An adult male does not have to drink milk in the sukkah. Perhaps, for a newborn baby, nursing is considered as if he is consuming a bread meal. Otherwise, Shammai must have felt that when the baby slept, he required a sukkah. This would also lead to an interesting discussion, if someone accidentally fell asleep outside the sukkah, while listening to a shiur, for example, do you have to wake them up? The baby falling asleep would be somewhat similar.

How exactly, according to Shammai, is a hole in middle of a roof a valid sukkah? He employed the halacha l’Moshe mi’Sinai of dofen akumah. The term lit-

erally means “bent wall.” As long as the kosher s’chach is within four amos of the walls of the house, we view the walls of the house as being the walls of the sukkah. This is a very convenient halacha that many employ to easily construct a sukkah. They build a removable ceiling into a room of their house and when Sukkos arrives, they simply remove the ceiling and replace it with s’chach.

Many years ago, Rabbi Rothberg and his chaverim went to a city in England to revitalize the state of Yiddishkeit there. They constantly encountered opposition to any halachic changes they wanted to enact which they thought were required. One oft-repeated reply by the local pop-

ulace was “Rav Unterman didn’t do it, and if it was good enough for Rav Unterman, it’s good enough for me.”

Rav Unterman had been the chief rabbi of Liverpool until 1946, but he hadn’t been there for many years and there was no way of ascertaining what Rav Unterman actually did or did not do. After Yom Kippur, Rabbi Rothberg asked the 75-year-old gabbai if the shul had a sukkah. He replied, “Sure!” Rabbi Rothberg repeatedly asked the gabbai to show him where the sukkah was, but he kept pushing him off.

The night before Sukkos, he again asked the gabbai to show him the sukkah. The gabbi then took Rabbi Rothberg and his chaverim to the social hall in the shul and pulled a lever. Some boards in the center of the ceiling opened up to reveal the sky. “Just put some s’chach up!” he happily said.

They realized right away that it was an invalid sukkah. The walls of the room were too far away from the opening in the center of the room to be kosher sukkah walls (more than four amos).

After the gabbai left, Rabbi Rothberg had an idea. They stacked chairs up in the center of the room and tied the bottoms with twine. (The twine was necessary to form halachic walls around the legs of the bottom chair.) They thereby formed four walls out of chairs. Although the chairs did not reach the opening in the roof, it was nevertheless acceptable. As long as the walls were ten tefachim high, it sufficed.

Rabbi Rothberg was extremely nervous about the gabbai’s reaction to their creation. Sure enough, in the morning, the gabbai chastised them. “What did you do?! The place looks horrendous! Rav Unterman didn’t do this! And if it was good enough for Rav Unterman, it is good enough for me!”

Just then, the 70-year-old non-Jewish caretaker walked in. He exclaimed, “Wow! The chairs, the rope, the mechitza – I haven’t seen them since Rabbi Unterman was here!”

How could there be a mitzvah of chinuch for a one-day-old baby?

Rabbi Avrohom Sebrow is a rebbe at Yeshiva Ateres Shimon in Far Rockaway. In addition, Rabbi Sebrow leads a daf yomi chaburah at Eitz Chayim of Dogwood Park in West Hempstead, NY. He can be contacted at ASebrow@gmail.com.