Daf Yomi - Sukkah 7 - Wood Shortage

Posted by David Farkas

Concerning lavud, gud asik, dofen akuma, etc. – in the book Nefesh Harav, the intellectual biography of Reb Yoshe Ber Solevetitchik zt’l, it is recorded that a Jewish historian once commented that all the aforementioned laws of lavud, etc., were promulgated because there was a shortage of wood in Israel, and consequently chazal were forced to cut corners, so to speak. Now the Gemara here says these laws are from Moshe at Sinai! Reb Yoshe Ber said that while the historian was wrong in his conclusion, it is possible to say that what prompted chazal to examine these areas of halacah in more detail, was a shortage in wood. These laws are primarily hilchos shabbos types of laws, but it could be a shortage of wood prompted chazal to reexamine these laws, which are from Moshe at Sinai, to see if they are applicable to succah.