Sukkos FAQs

Eating in the Sukkah on the First 2 Nights

1. If it is raining on the first night, if possible, to fulfil the mitzva properly, one should wait one or two hours to see if the rain subsides. In all cases, you must wash and eat before Chatzos (midnight), 12:52am this year (5787) in London.
2. If it is not possible to wait so long (e.g. there are hungry guests/family members), then the following applies:
   1. Make Kiddush with Shehecheyonu in the Sukkah even though rain is coming through.
   2. Do not make the brocho of לישב בסוכה (leishev b’sukkah).
   3. Wash for hamotzi and eat a Kezayis (roughly 27 grams) of bread in the Sukkah.
   4. Return to the house / close the roof to eat the rest of the Seudah.
   5. Since you ate bread in the Sukkah, you are obligated to bensch there, unless you eat a Kezayis of bread in the house.
3. If your Schach is thick and you can open the roof long enough to eat a Kezayis without getting wet, then you may make a brocho of לישב בסוכה even when it is raining.
4. If the rain stops during the meal (after you have already eaten in the Sukkah in the rain), then the following applies:
   • You should go into the Sukkah and make the brocho of לישב בסוכה (leishev b’sukkah).
   • Eat a piece of bread the size of slightly more than a Kebeitzoh (roughly 55 grams).
   • Bensch in the Sukkah.
5. If the rain stops after the meal, you should wash and say hamotzi, make a brocho of leishev and eat slightly more than a Kebeitzoh.
6. If the rain stops after you have already gone to sleep, there is no need to wake up and eat in the Sukkah.
7. On the second night, you need only wait a short time to try to make Kiddush without the rain. The following then applies:
   • If it does not stop raining within a short time, one may begin the meal inside and, at the end of the meal, if the rain has not yet subsided, one should eat a Kezayis of challah in the Sukkah in the rain.
   • If the rain does stop, one should eat a Kebeitzoh of challah in the Sukkah.
8. As ladies are not absolutely obligated in the Mitzva of Sukkah, they may make Yom Tov Kiddush immediately without waiting at all.

May we be zocheh to eat in the sukkah without any rain at all!

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