6117 Rain Check

A. The Mishna in Suka (28b) compares the raining on the yom tov of Sukkos to a servant who offers his master a cup and the master throws it back on his face. However Poskim disagree whether one who is stringent and decides to sit in the sukkah anyway, complies with the mitzvah or perhaps not only he does not perform a mitzvah, but he may be even acting improperly.

Remoh (O.H. 629: 7) rules that not only one sitting in the suka during the rain does not comply with the mitzvah; he is also called a “hediot” or a simpleton and an uncultivated individual. The act also involves the incorrect avoidance of Simchas Yom Tov. (Elef L’mateh 107, Imrei Pinchas 182)

Mishna Berurah (ibid. 45) mentions in the name of many Poskim that reciting a bracha would be in vain. However the Remoh (ibid. 5) himself rules that on the first night one should see to eat the volume of a kezais of bread in the sukkah when raining (without reciting a bracha- Mishna Berura ibid. 35)

However Eliohu Rabboh (ibid. 26) quoting Rabbenu Yerucham mentions that there are those who maintain that not only you do comply with the mitzvah, but you can also recite the bracha while it rains. Chazon Yechezkel (Suka 2: 5) writes that from the expression used by the Tosseftah, it seems it also agrees. Birkei Yosef (629:8) also quotes similar opinions. Mateh Ephraim (625: 4) adds that if one is pained by not being in the sukkah and is hurt more so than from being in the rain, he is allowed to stay.

Minchas Elozor (4: 31) mentions that many of the disciples of the Baal Shem Tov and the great exponents of the Chassidic movement would sit in the sukkah while it rained. Rav Mordechai of Lechovitch, who when challenged for sitting in the sukkah while it rained, from the ruling of the Remoh (see above), coined a famous phrase “He wishes to be that ‘hediot’ that the Remoh is refering to. Similar positions are to be found in Mekor Chaim (p. 110) quoting the Divrey Chaim, Ahavas Yisroel of Vishnitz (Kodosh Yisroel p.179) and many others. (See extensive list on Nitey Gavriel – Sukos 52: note 31)

Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit’a opinion is to follow the opinion of the Remoh above; he also quoted the view of HaGro (629: 5, see also Maase Rav 217) that when it rains the sukkah is not a sukkah at all.

Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Y. Hirshman, Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller and Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu, Horav Kalman Ochs, and Horav Dovid Bartfeld consulting in need Horav Hagaon Rav Yitzchak Berkowitz Shlit’a