Daf Yomi - Sukkah 6 - Are Four Walls One Too Many?

Tosfos in Rosh Hashanah 28b wonders why one should be allowed to build a Sukkah from four walls when the Torah states explicitly that it is kosher with three walls. The problem with building a Sukkah of four walls is that one is prohibited from adding on to a mitzvah, and this prohibition is called baal tosif.
for Tosfos' answer and further discussion, click here please
Tosfos answers that since one is required to dwell in the Sukkah as if he would be living there, it is preferable that one has a structure of four walls and not three. Olas Avrohom explains Tosfos to mean that if one extended the walls of his Sukkah to be more than seven tefachim, he certainly has not transgressed the prohibition of baal tosif. The reason for this is because the Torah does not require that the walls must be seven tefachim. Rather, seven tefachim is the minimum requirement for the length of the walls. This would be akin to one who takes a lulav and esrog that is larger than the Torah requires. Regarding the minimum requirement of walls for a Sukkah, however, one would have thought that since the Torah stated that a Sukkah consists of three walls, perhaps one would be violating the prohibition of baal tosif by adding a fourth wall, as a fourth wall is completely unnecessary to fulfill the mitzvah. Tosfos therefore answers that in truth, it is preferable to build four walls as one will then be more comfortable when dwelling in the Sukkah. The Shelah and Pri Megadim to Orach Chaim 643:4 rule that to fulfill the obligation of glorifying a mitzvah, which is derived from the verse that’s states this is my G-d and I will glorify Him, one should build a Sukkah with four walls.
One must wonder if it is prohibited to build a Sukkah of five walls because it is baal tosif.


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