[Avodah] Waterproof S'chach? Really?

[Zev Sero via Avodah]

On 21/10/16 06:27, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
>
> If a posek holds that s'chach *must* allow some rain in, and that if the
> s'chach keeps the rain out then it is pasul (as R' Zev Sero cited Rabenu
> Tam) - that is a position I can understand. But the two cited here do
> not seem to hold that way; they say to use "traditional s'chach", but
> they don't passel this new one.
>
> It seems to me that if one has a choice between (a) a traditional sukkah
> that will probably force me to eat in the house part of the time, and
> (b) a non-traditional sukkah that is kosher and which I can use all week
> long, it's really no contest.

In fact that is one of Rabbenu Tam's arguments.  If it were possible to 
build a sukkah that keeps out the rain, then what heter could anyone 
have to leave the sukkah just because it's raining?  Throw some more 
schach on the roof and sit!  Who asked you to build such a flimsy sukkah 
in the first place?  The fact that we are not required to do this shows 
that it would passel the sukkah.

BTW, RT had a brother-in-law called R Shimon who built a rain-proof 
sukkah, and RT passeled it.  I don't know who this R Shimon was, though 
I wonder whether it's a typo for Shimshon, since we know that his wife 
Miriam was the sister of R Shimshon ben Yosef hazaken of Falaise, the 
grandfather of the Ritzba and the Rashba of Sens.

-- 
Zev Sero                Wishing everyone a good aquittal
zev at sero.name