[Avodah] Shehecheyanu on Matza

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Mon, Oct 19, 2015 at 02:42:43PM -0400, Zev Sero via Avodah wrote:
: Of *course* it's not on *possessing* a sukkah; how could one possibly
: say shecheyanu on possessing anything?  Shehecheyanu is by definition
: on new things; one says it on *acquiring* possessions, not on having
: them...

Correct, but on the joy of ownership, not the act of acquisition. SA OC
233:4 "she'enin haberakhah ela al yadei simchas heleiv", for he is happy
when he acquires them. I do not think you would say this about a sukkah,
since mitzvos lav leihanos nitenu.

In any case, OC 641:1 says that someone who makes a sukkah doesn't make
the berakhah then because we are someikh on the one made at Qiddush. But
he says it's "al asiyasah". Not having it, but the act of making it.

The Rama quotes the Ran that if it's raining or for some other reason he
isn't sitting in the sukkah, he still has to make a shehachiyanu "mishum
sukkah" -- which does seem to be about the cheftzah, not the pe'ulah.
Except that the Rama is extending the SA's pesaq, not contradicting it.
Presumably both are speaking about making a berakhah on the same thing.

In any case, it seems from R Zevin's explanation of the Avudraham that
the shehechiyanu is being said on the Chag haSukkos, which then serves
as an umbrella including the specific mitzvos of the chag. Not directly
on the joy of having a sukkah nor on the heksher mitzvah of building it.

And yet, the Rama holds that if the person who didn't sit in the sukkah
the first night also happened to make a shehachiyanu be'sheas asiyah, then
he wouldn't make a shehechiyanu at qiddush. Which implies a machloqes
between the Avudraham, who assumes that the berachah is on the chag,
and the Ran.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Man is a drop of intellect drowning in a sea
micha at aishdas.org        of instincts.
http://www.aishdas.org                         - Rav Yisrael Salanter
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