0334 - Why Some Don't Sit in the Sukkah on Shmini Atzeres - Rabbi JB Soloveichik

00:00 Minchah Chabad is that we eat in the Sukkos Shemini Atzeres and we drink in the Sukkos Shemini Atzeres like we do the whole week of Sukkos. As it says in the Sefer HaMinhogim, Shemini Atzeres mekatshim u'gam eichlin u'sheisin besukkah hem balaila hem bayom. That on Shemini Atzeres we make Kiddush, we eat and drink in the Sukkah at night entering the day. And in the order there it says that there are different minhogim. Look into the Nesekelim, the maforshim of the Shulchan Aruch, Siman tof, ris samachet. And look into Shailat Yeshuva, Siman heh, lamed daled, siman lamed alef. But l'peel, our minhag is that we do eat in the Sukkah on Shemini Atzeres, night and the day. And it's all based on the Gemara. The Gemara says, es Sukkah daf mem zayin, dehilechah mehaseh v'yasvinan baruch elevah v'rachinan. The halacha is, the Gemara says, that we eat in the Sukkah Shemini Atzeres, but we don't make a bracha. That's what it says in Shulchan Aruch, Siman tof, ris samachet, Sif Alef, that b'chutz la'aretz eichlin besukkah balaila v'bayom. That in chutz la'aretz we eat in the Sukkah day and night. If neshios safek shvi because it's a safek, maybe it's the seventh, not the eighth. Because originally when they started in years, in time of the Sanhedrin, they was a safek. That's why we have two days Yom Tov. We don't know which day is the real day, so it might be the seventh, and therefore we eat in the Sukkah, but we do not make

01:12 a bracha. But I want to tell over a conversation I had with our Gaon, Reb Yehoshua Bersal Ovadia in this Siyum. This was after Simchat Torah, taf shin lamed, I believe, when the Rashag sat shiva, I think after his mother. She passed away, I think, Chol Hamoed, and the peh shiva didn't start till after Yom Tov. So Reb Yehoshua Ber came to seven seventy to be Menachem Av, the Rashag. And we, a few bochurim heard that he came, so we also went up to see, to speak to him in learning, et cetera. So when we're there, I turned around to him and I asked him, "Did you sit in the Sukkah on Shemini Atzeret? Did you eat in the Sukkah Shemini Atzeres?" So he says, "Avada, for sure." And he quoted the Gemara, and he quoted the Shulchan Aruch, where we just said before. So Avada, I wait and I said, "How else?" So I said to him, "But you know there are a lot of Nesekelim in Shulchan Aruch, a lot of maforshim that give reasons and come into defense of those who don't eat in the Sukkah." So he says, "But I'll tell you." He says, I'll tell you why I-- what I think why people really don't eat in the Sukkah. And he says like this, because the Gemara says in Shabbos daf chaf gimel. The Gemara says that for every mitzvah you have to make a bracha, even if it's a mitzvah only d'rabonan. But then the Gemara asks, how come

02:24 when the Chachamim said that you must take off maaser from dmai, they said not to make a bracha? Dmai is when you have grain or things like that, that you have to take off maaser, and, and Amharas tells you that he took off. So the Chachamim said, "We don't trust him, and you gotta take off maaser." But they said, "Don't make a bracha." And this is mid'Rabbonan. Mid'Raisi, he wouldn't have to take off. So here we see it's a mitzvah mid'Rabbonan, and we don't make a bracha. So the Gemara answers like this. Safek d'divreiam lo ba bracha. If the mitzvah d'Rabbonan came based on a safek, it doesn't need a bracha. Like dmai. The reason we do it is because it's a safek. But when did we say that we have to make a bracha even by mitzvah d'Rabbonan? That's if it's a vadai d'Rabbonan. If the Rabbonan made not because of a safek, like Rashas, like Chanukah, there's no safek. The Rabbonan made a din, made a mitzvah, so we have to make a bracha. But if the whole din d'Rabbonan is based on a safek, we don't make a bracha. Then the Gemara asks the shaila, if so, how come the second day Yom Tov is only mid'Rabbonan, and the Rabbonan said we have to make a bracha? We make Kiddush, we make a bracha before, for Yom Tov. And it's also based on a safek. It all started because of a safek. And the Gemara answers, Ki chei chadalei lazilzuli bo. So

03:35 people shouldn't come to be mezalzel, that it should become light in their eyes, and they wouldn't really keep the Yom Tov properly. Imagine if we wouldn't have to make Kiddush, we wouldn't have to make a bracha the second day Yom Tov. People would be mezalzel in the Yom Tov. That's why even though it's based on a safek, the Chachamim said to make a bracha. So he turns around to me, he says, "We see from this Gemara that if it's something that we would expect a bracha, and you don't make a bracha, we are chashish, we suspect that people will stop keeping it. People will not keep it properly." And he says, "This is exactly what happened here." For sitting in the Sukkah, we make a bracha the whole week, and all of a sudden we don't make a bracha. So if you do something that really belongs a bracha, and l'peel you don't make a bracha, the Gemara says you could come to be mezalzel. This is exactly what happened. People started being mezalzel, and people stopped eating in the Sukkah Shemini Atzeres. It's a very interesting chap. I can't say that this is a real pshat, because when we say that there are people who didn't eat in the Sukkah Shemini Atzeres are not just some people. G'dol Yisroel, they say the Baal Shem Tov didn't eat in the Sukkah the whole day of Shemini Atzeres. Another G'dol Yisroel, you can't say chas v'shalom, chas v'shalom they were mezalzel. So therefore, I can't say

04:46 this is a, a real reason, but it's definitely an interesting chap from this Gemara where it says that if you don't make a bracha, you come to be mezalzel, that it fits here that the Chachamim said, Mevorach l'o v'rachinan, don't make a bracha, so people came to be mezalzel.