Q&A: Tractate Sukkah
Tractate Sukkah
Question
Rabbi Michi, hello.
Tosafot on Tractate Sukkah 27, s.v. “Rabbi Eliezer retracted,” brings at the end the Jerusalem Talmud. I didn’t really understand its wording, and whether it disagrees with Tosafot. This is what it says: “And in the Jerusalem Talmud they answer: Rabbi Acha said, for an important commandment—meaning that ideally one must eat in the sukkah, and if he did not eat, he makes it up on the eighth day.”
What does “for an important commandment” mean, and does it disagree with Tosafot and hold that even the meal of the first festival night can be made up on Shemini Atzeret?
Answer
It does not seem that it really disagrees, but only differs in nuance. Tosafot wrote that Rabbi Eliezer did not retract from the view that we require fourteen meals, but rather from the view that we require a sukkah. And the Jerusalem Talmud is only explaining the wording of the baraita, saying that ideally one nevertheless needs a sukkah. It is at least the same general direction, even if not exactly the same thing.