[Avodah] rain on Succot

[Marty Bluke]

R' Saul Mashbaum wrote:
<...I have not seen the peirush hamishnayot of the Rambam mentioned by
some posters, but cannot understand how the mishnyot in Taanit and
Succa can be understood to refer only to rain on the first night.
<Both clearly refer to rain on all of Succot.

Take a look at the Meiri and Ritva on Taanis 2b (where the Gemara
comments that rain on succos is a siman klala). They both say that it
refers to all of succos. Then they bring down the pshat of R'
Ephrayim(I believe) who says that it only refers to the first day.

The Rama brings down the mashal of the master throwing water in the
servant's face when he talks about leaving the succa for rain on ANY
day of succos, and therefore it would seem that the Rama understands
this to apply on all 7 days.

There are actually 3 opinions:
1. Rain is a siman klala all of succos since there is a mitzva of
teishvu k'eyn taduru (a person cannot go 7 days without sleep) and
rain interferes with performance of the mitzva(Ritva, Meiri, simple
understanding of the Rama)
2. Rain is a siman klala on all of the dayas after the first night,
however, since on the first night you need to eat in the succa anyway
it is not a siman klala
3. It is only a siman klala on the first night (simple understanding
of the Rambam in the Peirush Hamishnayos in succa)