According to the Ministry of Health guidelines, it is permitted to leave home in order to provide “assistance to a person who has difficulty or is in distress.”

Wouldn’t that permit traveling in order to help a father build a sukkah?

I’m no great expert in the regulations, but check carefully whether such a thing is actually forbidden…. From what I heard, it’s not clear at all..
By the way, maybe you should travel before Yom Kippur? Because they’ll probably plan to tighten the regulations. Although even then such a thing would probably be permitted, unless they decide to try to “take advantage” of the week of Sukkot for an almost hermetic lockdown, etc., so as not to hurt the economy, etc.

With God’s help, 4 Tishrei 5780

To Aharon — greetings,

I do not understand the question. After all, the Ministry of Health regulations explicitly state that it is permitted to go out in order to help a person who is in difficulty or distress, and what is permitted is permitted!

Best regards, S.T.

For if it were not permitted, the son would be obligated to find someone in place of his father to act as his agent in building the sukkah, even for payment, because it is a personal obligation of the son to help his father, and the principle that honoring one’s father comes from the father’s funds does not apply here.

I really don’t know. Is something like this called assistance? He doesn’t need it for his life. It’s not clear to me, and I doubt it’s clear to anyone.

With God’s help, 4 Tishrei 5781

To Rabbi Michael Abraham — greetings,

It depends who the father is. If he is a cold Lithuanian scholar, and a Kantian free of emotional considerations :), then if according to the law he is considered under compulsion, let him eat and rejoice without a sukkah — especially since the whole matter of the “providence” symbolized by the sukkah has already passed and disappeared from the world 🙂

However, for someone who is not in that category, being left without a sukkah for the holiday is a terrible bummer, and if the son does not come help build the sukkah, the father gets more and more upset. That is obvious to anyone who lives among human beings.

In any case, in my humble opinion, it would be worthwhile to check the possibility of finding someone in the father’s neighborhood who would help him build the sukkah, even for payment. There are many boys who would gladly do it, for a modest payment or even voluntarily. And that may be preferable to traveling during the “lockdown,” since some strict policeman might always show up and say, “I hold like Rabbi Michael Abraham,” and fine the son, as Esther said: “Go, gather all the Jews” :).

Therefore, practically speaking, in my humble opinion it is preferable to look for a “messenger for a commandment” in the father’s neighborhood.

Best regards, S.T.

With God’s help, 4 Tishrei 5781

The Bnei Akiva movement has a volunteer team that helps families who need assistance building a sukkah. A registration link is on the Bnei Akiva website, in the section “Builders’ Team 5781.”

You can also contact the telephone hotline:

South:
Noga — 0538/238688

Jerusalem:
Adi — 0545/351343
Noa — 0544/495788

Center:
Hodaya — 0502/242311
Lian — 0505/515512

North:
Hadar — 0542/285149

With blessings for good tidings and salvation, Samson (Yeshurun Tribe, Jerusalem-Center branch)

To the Rabbi and to Samson,
From the questioner’s wording, I understood that his concern is not the fine.

A fine is easy to evade. He can claim he is traveling to work, he can claim he is traveling to help his father with elementary needs (such as bathing and cooking), and so on.
I understood his question to be what is proper.
If from the standpoint of the regulations this is forbidden, it won’t help if we advise him to use volunteers, because they too would be forbidden, and just as it is not proper for him to violate the regulations, it is also not proper for him to cause them to violate them.

The question is whether “assistance to a person who has difficulty or is in distress” includes assistance with religious needs.

I assume that if we were to ask the people who formulated the regulations, they would be lenient. Why? Because despite all the restrictions, they permitted leaving home for the purpose of purchasing sukkah supplies, which is a sign that they understand this to count as an “essential need.” If it is an essential need for the questioner, then it is also an essential need for the questioner’s father, so that the son may be allowed to leave in order to help his father.
But since not every policeman is knowledgeable enough to understand this, it would be advisable to help the father with some additional matter as well, and then tell the policeman that the trip is in order to help the father with several needs, among them some elementary ones.