Is There a Bracha for Sukkah Hopping? by Rabbi Avram Schwartz

Question: Should one who enters their friend’s sukkah to visit them during the holiday recite the blessing of lei’shev ba’sukkah even when they will not eat a meal?

Answer: Rabbenu Hai Gaon ruled in a teshuvahthat one who enters their friend’s sukkah should recite the blessing of lei’shev ba’sukkah, whether they are eating a meal there or not. He testifies that this was the common practice. Rabbi Yitzchak ibn Ghayyat cites this as the practical halakhah in his work Me’ah She’arim (p. 89), as does… Rosh (Sukkah 4:3) [and a number of other authorities]…

However, Orhot Hayyim (Hilkhot Sukkah 39) writes that this is no longer the practice. Ba’al Ha’Ittur (Hilkhot Sukkah 78c) also writes that it is not the custom, and that one should not recite a blessing in his friend’s sukkah unless he is eating there… In Mahzor Vitry (no. 359, end)… it also seems that he does not hold like the cited position of Rabbenu Hai Gaon, which is why he ends by saying that it is a blessing in vain. This is also our practice, namely, not to make a blessing when entering another’s sukkah unless one is sitting and eating a meal.

Korban Netanel (Piskei Ha’Rosh, Sukkah 3:60) wrote with regard to the words of Rav Hai Gaon, “Our master [Rosh] already wrote that this is not the common practice.” His reference is to what Rosh had written earlier, that the people do not have the custom to say the blessing of lei’shev ba’sukkah except when they are sitting down to eat.

However, those who reject this practice are overreaching. One only restricts the blessing to meal times in one’s own sukkah in which one eats regularly throughout all seven days of the festival, and in which sleeping and lounging [in the sukkah, which are also part of the mitzvah] are subordinate to eating meals. The blessing of lei’shev ba’sukkah which one recites at mealtimes is effective also for sleeping and lounging, as he [Rosh] writes there in the name of Rabbenu Tam. But when one enters their fellow’s sukkah, “new faces have arrived” [it is a new experience], so one must say the blessing even if one is not eating there. This explains why Rosh recorded the words of Rav Hai Gaon [that one recites a blessing in a friend’s sukkah even without eating anything] after citing the common practice and the words of Rabbeinu Tam [that one only recites the blessing before sitting down to a meal]; he [Rosh] maintains that there is a distinction between entering one’s own sukkah and entering someone else’s sukkah. And this is also raised by Responsa Arugat Ha’bosem (OH 192)…and this is the ruling of Hayyei Adam (147:15)…

Admittedly, this is the practice [to recite the blessing when visiting someone else’s sukkah even if one is not having a meal there ] among many of our brothers, the Ashkenazim, and in particular, those who follow the opinion of the Gra in Ma’aseh Rav (no. 212) that one should recite a blessing every time they enter their own sukkah, and all the more so a friend’s sukkah, ideally making sure to eat some cake or drink wine. I have also heard that some of our brothers, the Yemenites, have the custom to recite a blessing whenever they enter the sukkah. Nevertheless, this is not our practice. So concludes Ha’gaon, Rishon Li’Tziyyon, Rabbi Refael ben Shmuel Meyuhas in Mizbeah Adamah (9c)… “in Lehem Yehudah(36d), Rabbi Ayyash writes that we rule that one should only say the blessing at meal times, like the opinion of Rabbenu Tam.” This implies that even when one enters their friend’s sukkah, they should not make a blessing unless they are eating there, in accordance with the words of the cited Rishonim.

See Arukh Ha’shulhan (639:28) who writes: Even according to Rabbenu Tam, who rules that one should recite the blessing only at a meal, it appears to me this only applies in one’s own sukkah; but one who enters his friend’s sukkahrecites the blessing since he is not eating a meal there, and the blessing he recited in his own sukkah is not effective for another person’s sukkah. Nonetheless, this is not the custom… and it appears that the intention of Rema was that even when one enters his friend’s sukkah, the practice is to not recite the blessing; the reason for this is because we adopt the halakhic position that the primary mitzvah is eating in the sukkah and one should only make a blessing over the primary mitzvah act.”

We can see that even among our brothers, the Ashkenazim, there is no agreed upon position [as to whether a blessing should or should not be recited in this case]… And see… Mishneh Berurah, Sha’ar Ha’tziyyun (639:93) [who cites the position of Hayyei Adam but favors the position that even in someone else’s sukkah, one only recites the blessing when sitting down to a meal]. In the final analysis, “Every river flows its own way” (i.e., every place has its own practices). But if there is some doubt, then one should not make a blessing, in accordance with the major principle: one should be lenient with regard to blessings in a doubtful case.