A Rainy Sukkos Did Not Dampen Simchas Yom Tov in Lakewood

The weather forecast could not get it more wrong, There is a reason they are refereed to as נביאי שקר. They predicted rain but said it would be clear for the first night of Yom Tov with a 3 hour window during the seuda time. Instead it rained almost straight.

As people came home from shul the question was how long to wait before starting the meal. Do you hold out to chatzos hoping the weather will let up? what about the kids how late can they stay up?  Can you make a bracha of leishev ba’sukka in this weather?
Some   Rabbonim announced in shul not to wait more than an hour, others held out longer for a small break in the weather enough to make kiddush hamotzie and  start the meal. The scene repeated itself over the first few days of sukkos making it impossible to sleep in the succa the first few nights.

Instead of putting a damper on the yom tov people responded by looking for any opportunity to be mekayem the mitzva of yeshivas sukkah between the raindrops. It showed a chavivas hamitzva. Chazal say its a סימן קללה if it rains on sukkos some say it is only referring to the first night and only applies to Eretz Yisrael. The piskei Teshuva brings down from the bikurei yaakov that according to the rama that one can eat in the rain on the first night it is not considered a סימן קללה, to the contrary one gets more schar fr it.



 פסקי תשובות (סי’ תרלט אות יח) . ביכורי יעקב (שם ס”ק לט) כתב כי מאחר שדעת הרמ”א שניתן לאכול בסוכה כשיורדים גשמים בלילה הראשון, הרי דווקא בלילה זה אינו סימן קללה, שהרי הוא אוכל בסוכה, ואדרבה מתוך צער, ושכרו מרובה יותר. וכן הביא בשם שו”ת זכרון יהודה (גרינוולד, סי’ קפג).