Q&A: A Thought About the Sukkot in Lod
A Thought About the Sukkot in Lod
Question
I just saw in the bulletin of R. Amram Fried a dispute between the Rema and the Shulchan Arukh (which is really a dispute among the medieval authorities) regarding the exemption of someone who is distressed: whether one who built a sukkah in which he is distressed from the outset (for example, if it is next to a garbage dumpster) is not considered to have built a sukkah at all (in the words of the Yere’im: “Since he cannot use it for all the normal needs of eating, drinking, and sleeping without distress, from the outset it is not a sukkah”), or whether it is considered a sukkah and he simply does not get the exemption of one who is distressed, because he brought himself into that situation. The practical difference would be if he is distressed only with respect to sleeping: whether he fulfills the commandment through eating there alone, for according to the Rema he would not have fulfilled his obligation, whereas according to the Shulchan Arukh he would. In light of this, I wonder whether a significant portion of the residents of Lod fulfill their obligation at all (especially our crowd from Ramat Eshkol), since sleeping there is apparently not all that safe, and they are certainly distressed.
Answer
No need to get carried away. The situation here is reasonable, and there is no need for concern. If someone is very worried, then you already wrote the dispute. What do you want me to say?
I spoke with several people in Lod who are unwilling to sleep in the sukkah out of fear of Arabs, drug addicts, and the like. It follows that they are obligated to build in another place, along the lines of what the Chatam Sofer wrote (siman 640, se’if katan 4), that someone who has no place in his courtyard to build a sukkah is obligated to go to others and build a sukkah there. There would also be another practical difference regarding the blessing “to sit in the sukkah” (especially for Ashkenazim who follow the view of the Rema), so that their blessing should not be in vain. If this is really the case, I am obligated to tell them this.