Leaving the Sukkah: Getting High with a Higher Authority
At the End of Days, all of the nations of the world will come to G-d and ask to receive the reward that is due to them, for the commandments that they have performed (Avoda Zara 2b-3a). G-d will give the non-Jewish nations an opportunity to earn extra reward by allowing them to partake in the mitzvah of Sukkah and
“…immediately, each and every one will take [materials] and go and make a Sukkah…and G-d will bring out the sun during the hottest time of the year and make it beat down on them and each and every one will kick his Sukkah and leave.”
It is quite odd that G-d would give the nations of the world an opportunity to earn reward and then immediately take it away from them. That self-same passage from the Talmud says that G-d, “does not come with petty harassments for people.”
The Talmud answers this issue by explaining that even Jews are often forced to leave the Sukkah, and that someone who is bothered by his or her Sukkah environment is exempt from the commandment to dwell in the hut. The reason that the nations of the world will not receive reward for this mitzvah is that they kicked the Sukkah on the way out.
The Talmud has answered the obvious issue with its unique story with a direct, compact, analytical answer. However, when the Talmud brings such a story — an aggadah, a deeply metaphorical and/or philosophical text — it is important to realize that there are profound, hidden concepts embedded in the passage. The Talmud does not lightly toss around ideas about the End of Days or clashes in religious practices. There are inevitably deeper ideas at work in such aggadot.
In this passage lie two distinctly different ways by which people perceive the function of law, as it relates to the usage of religious items or ritual. One way is to view the function of such items and rituals as the sole vehicle, in the given context, by which one performs a religious act or achieves a spiritual high. The other way is to view the item as one possible mandated deed within a system of law, as given by a Higher Authority. The first is preoccupied with the item itself. What significance has the item taken on, within my people? I will lack, the holder of this belief thinks, if I cannot use this exact item or do this given ritual.
The second view looks to the overall elaborate system of law, namely Jewish Law (Halacha), for what is the correct religious act. If circumstances such a weather and breathable air enable him or her to live in the given Sukkah, he or she should do so. If it is too hot or cold or putrid-smelling to live there, then the person is exempt from the mitzvah. My religious act, as per the Law, is not to live there. The former is dictated by man and man’s desire for religious meaning, the latter by a system that is external to man’s desires.
One may feel a great deal of spirituality inside of the Sukkah, but, in reality, – Halachic reality — one is doing the same action when one eats inside ones house or in the Sukkah, when the Sukkah is invalid. To take the point even further, when one attempts to do a mitzvah and one 
is stopped by what is called ‘o’ness’ ‘circumstances beyond ones control’(1) she or he earns full reward as if she or he did the act in full! This is reward far beyond what most would achieve, when one usually does a mitzvah, as our performance or intention is usually lacking is some way. The nations of the world should be full of joy that they will received full credit for leaving the Sukkah, but they instead focused on the hut itself and the act of dwelling therein, as it relates to their own understanding of religion.
Jewish law is truly unique. In my experience as a rabbi in a very small Orthodox Jewish community that was surrounded by Jews of varied levels of knowledge, one of the topics that I continually found myself returning to was that of klalei hora’ah, the rules of the Law. How does Jewish Law work? Most people are accustomed to man-made laws. Laws are put in place by man, they have functional reasons (don’t steal, don’t drive this or that way) or symbolic
meaning (honor this national holiday, cheer for your sports team this way) or the like. They are made to be doubted (here’s why the government made this rule…) or changed (doesn’t make sense anymore). Jewish Law was not made with ulterior motives or relativistic morals as its underlying thought process. As is clear by now, it is a system, and one that emphasizes the importance of figuring out the correct act to do, though it is often unexpected.
By no means do I mean to bog down the reader by emphasizing the importance of technical law. Our laws do have deep symbolic, philosophical meaning and psychological impact. I always emphasize both aspects (see the tiferet section here). What is important is the metaphor behind leaving the Sukkah. The Sukkah reminds us that our religious deeds are in a constant state of structures flux: one week our religious act comes from a natural hut, and one week from water and flour. It is the following of the correct practice that has deep religious significance and unifies all of the different components.
It is important not to ‘kick’ or become despondent, when one does not receive his or her desired outcome or religious fix. Our religious connection comes from doing what is correct, and one can find deep satisfaction in that simple idea alone. To do ‘the right thing’ is to properly fulfill the will of a Higher Authority.
Good Yom Tov to you and yours from the Baileys (1) I find it extremely ironic that this is called an ‘act of G-d’ in American Law.