- Shabbat and Holidays
- The Sukkah and the Schach
- Torah and Jewish Thought
- General Questions
Question
Anybody who has some connection to Lubavitch , the last rebbe, how do they get around the psak from the Alter Rebbe not to sleep in the suka because it's too holy. Isnt it going against the Talmud and Shulchan Aruch?
Answer
Moadim L'Simcha! Halachically, indeed even the Shulchan Aruch HaRav of the first Lubavitcher Rebbe (639, 4), agrees that one must sleep in the sukka (where weather permits, as is natural in Eretz Yisrael). The lenient chasidim (Chabad and Belz) and their rebbes, base their claim on the law that one is exempt if he "suffers" in the sukka, and it "hurts" them to sleep in a place so holy, or in a place where their rebbe himself didn't sleep, or perhaps these worries may prevent them from falling asleep, so they claim exemption. Indeed, this is an example of why the mitnagdim were wary of hassidut, where it sometimes contradicts the Talmud and Shulchan Aruch. Nevertheless, don't make a machloket on the issue because that also is forbidden, especially when you don't stand a chance of changing their mind.