A More Mehudar Mitzvah

The apparent question is, why does one have to build a sukkah? One may be obligated to sit in a sukkah on Sukkos, but can you say that one is obligated to build a sukkah? Why can’t a person just sit in someone else’s sukkah? The Netziv posits that Rav Achai Gaon holds that indeed there is a Torah mitzvah to build a sukkah. According to his ruling, the Mishna can be understood simply.

Most other opinions feel that building a sukkah is just a preparatory mitzvah to enable one to sit in a sukkah. Some suggest that it all depends on context. Indeed, if there are communal sukkahs available, his oath not to build a sukkah would be binding. Our Mishna discusses a scenario where it is highly unlikely that the person making the vow will find another sukkah to use.

There is no question that the harder a mitzvah is to fulfill, the greater reward a person receives. This is a clear Mishna in the fifth Perek of Pirkei Avos. Additionally, the Arizal notes that when one sweats while performing a mitzvah, it has special atonement powers. The Mishna Berura cites this concept in the context of baking matzos. Certainly, sweating while schlepping boards for the sukkah is praiseworthy. Yet, many Admorim and Rabbanim have opted to have sukkahs built into their houses. While there may be practical reasons for doing so, this author would like to suggest an alternative explanation.

The Gemara states in Shabbos (133b), “Beautify yourself before Him in mitzvos. Even if one fulfills the mitzvah by performing it simply, it is nonetheless proper to perform the mitzvah as beautifully as possible. Make before Him a beautiful sukkah, a beautiful lulav, a beautiful shofar, beautiful tzitzis strings, beautiful parchment for a Torah scroll, and write in it in His name in beautiful ink, with a beautiful quill by an expert scribe, and wrap the scroll in beautiful silk fabric.”

What if there is tension between two dictums: exerting efforts oneself to do a mitzvah or having a nicer finished product? Which option should one choose? The Chaya Adam raises this question regarding a Sefer Torah. Writing a Sefer Torah is a mitzvah. One can fulfill the mitzvah through an agent, but it is preferable to accomplish it oneself. Which path should one choose? Write a Sefer Torah himself that will be simply kosher, or hire an expert scribe who can produce a beautiful Sefer Torah? The Chaya Adam leaves this question unresolved. Yet the Doveiv Meisharim conclusively rules that one should hire an expert scribe and beautify the mitzvah. Rav Vozner, zt”l, concurred. Faced with the two options, we choose the nicer mitzvah rather than the effort.

Shut Machsheves Kodesh discusses a similar question. What if one can only afford wax candles to light Chanukah lights? Alternatively, he can pay his friend to partner in the lighting of his olive oil lights. He would thereby fulfill his obligation with his friends’ lighting. Which is preferable: lighting oneself with wax or performing the mitzvah via an agent in a more mehudar fashion, with olive oil? The Machsheves Kodesh rules that he should join in with his friend’s olive oil lighting.

Rav Zilberstein discusses another Chanukah question. A sick patient can only light Chanukah licht near his bed. Alternatively, he can have an agent light for him by the window. Lighting by the window is preferable because it publicizes the miracle. Should he light by the bed or have an agent light by a window? Rav Zilberstein concludes he should appoint an agent to light for him by the window. In all these scenarios, these poskim rule that we prioritize a nicer mitzvah over one’s own involvement in the mitzvah.

It is somewhat challenging to compare the quality and the comfort of an “indoor” sukkah to an outdoor one. For starters, an outdoor sukkah is open to the rain. It is uncomfortable to sit in a wet sukkah after the rain stops. The sukkahs built indoors have been professionally constructed with retractable roofs. True, one could create such a contraption for their outdoor sukkah as well. However, there are some horror stories about how people destroyed their sukkahs with shlocks. It is usually more comfortable sleeping in an indoor sukkah in terms of safety. A neighbor sleeps in his outdoor sukkah with a knife under his pillow. Indeed, some raise the question whether one fulfills the mitzvah of eating in a sukkah if it is built in a place where one is too scared to sleep there. The temperature is more regulated in an indoor sukkah for both heat and cold. If one avoids sleeping outdoors due to the cold weather, the indoor sukkah is truly incredible.

True, one does lose much of the effort involved when using an “indoor” sukkah, but he has a more mehudar mitzvah experience.

Late on Erev Shabbos, a man rushed into a store and managed to grab the last white challah –only whole wheat remained. A second customer arrived moments later, despondent at finding only whole wheat, lamenting, “My wife will be furious – she’ll say that I should have shopped sooner.” Seizing a chance to promote shalom bayis, the first man kindly handed over his white challah and settled for a whole wheat loaf, although he knew another white challah was waiting at home.

At the ensuing Shabbos meal, which loaf should be used for the bracha? Although the whole wheat challah was acquired through an act of self-sacrifice, generally, halacha views the white challah as preferable. Yedidi, Dr. Akiva Bergman, personally asked this question to several poskim – including Rav Aharon Leib Shteinman, zt”l. They unanimously ruled that one must use the white challah. In halacha, the white loaf is inherently more “mehudar,” and that preference overrides the merit of how the loaf was obtained. The man’s generous act will surely be rewarded, but for the bracha, the white challah takes precedence.