Chanukah

[liv]

I have ideological issues with Chanukah. But this evening, I came home from work, and was so dead tired that I fell straight to sleep (this was the middle of the afternoon!) And I woke up and it was cold and dark, but there was my chanukah present from lethargic_man. All of a sudden, I felt far away from my family and my people, and I had a strong impulse to go out to the corner shop and buy nightlights with which I improvised a chanukah lamp.

Then I sat down and wrote a highly enthusiastic review of The Player of Games.

To those who care about such things, happy chanukah.

Comments

[hatam-soferet.livejournal.com]

There isn't a mitzvah to *build* a succah, only to *sit* in one. Consequently, that's binding on the individual, but you don't have to own the succah, only to have permission to use it.

Other things that the household has to do but aren't the province of a particular individual...what about mezuzah? If you move into a house that's alreay kitted out with mezuzot, you don't have to do anything. Perhaps hospitality? It gets confused quite quickly with the things that the Man of the House has to do, he being representative of the household. W's out right now, so no input from there :)

[liv]

Thank you so much, so useful having such a knowledgeable person in range.

I was confused about both succah and mezuzah, cos of never having been in a situation where either just happens. Pretty much, if I want to sit in a succah, I need to build one, and if I want my dwelling to have mezuzot, I need to fix them. Thus the building and fixing are sort of contingent to my being able to perform the mitzvot of sitting and having.

But the hospitality could be a very interesting example.

[hatam-soferet.livejournal.com]

W couldn't think of any others about households, but he suggested as a parallel the argument about tzitzit - whether it's a mitzvah only if you possess a four-cornered garment, or whether the mitzvah is to own a four-cornered garment with tzitzit.