Q&A: Sleeping in the Sukkah and Subjective Obligations
Sleeping in the Sukkah and Subjective Obligations
Question
Hello Rabbi, I’m interested to know whether certain commandments can be defined subjectively, for example “you shall rejoice on your festival,” honoring parents, and so on. The question came to me בעקבות the dilemma of whether I am obligated to sleep in the sukkah, since that detracts from my joy on the festival, and perhaps I am even forbidden to sleep there, since rejoicing on the festival is a Torah-level obligation whereas sleeping is rabbinic… Regarding honoring parents as well, it is forbidden to draw blood from your father even though in certain situations that is beneficial for him and he is comfortable with it…. Another point that was raised against my understanding is that a person is close to himself, and therefore he cannot determine in an unbiased way what to do in certain situations, so the halakhic decisors have to leave us as little room as possible to rule for ourselves… I’d be happy if the Rabbi could answer.
Answer
First, sleeping in the sukkah is a Torah-level obligation, not a rabbinic one.
Second, in most cases Jewish law is determined for everyone according to the reasonable person standard. This is the rule of “his personal view is nullified in relation to everyone else.” As for discomfort in the sukkah, if you mean discomfort caused by the very fact of sleeping in the sukkah, it does not seem to me that this would permit you to sleep at home because of that. Only if you have some special discomfort (you are particularly delicate, or ill), and not merely because of the basic inconvenience of sleeping in the sukkah. What you should do is make sure the sukkah is comfortable and pleasant to use, so that you will not suffer discomfort (fan, portable air conditioner, comfortable bed, lighting, etc.).
True, the leniency for a particularly delicate person is seemingly an exception to this rule, but it seems to me that we are talking about a type of person, not a specific individual. If you are someone who suffers in a special way from sleeping in the sukkah (more than any ordinary person, for whom it also is not pleasant to sleep there), then perhaps you fall into the category of a particularly delicate person.