Sukkah, Daf Kaf Zayin, Part 2
Introduction
Today’s section continues with the second half of the mishnah.
ועוד אמר רבי אליעזר. והא אמר רבי אליעזר: ארבע עשרה סעודות חייב אדם לאכול בסוכה, אחת ביום ואחת בלילה! –
R. Eliezer further said . But didn’t R. Eliezer say that a man is obliged to eat fourteen meals in the sukkah, one on each day and one on each night?
In the first part of the mishnah, R. Eliezer says that one must eat fourteen meals in a sukkah. But in the second half he says that if he misses eating the first night, he can make it up on the last night. The problem is that R. Eliezer seems to disagree with himself. If one is obligated for fourteen meals, then he would have to make up any missed meal. [There are other interpretations of how R. Eliezer contradicts himself.]
אמר בירא אמר רב אמי: חזר בו רבי אליעזר.
Bira said in the name of R. Ammi: R. Eliezer changed his mind.
Bira agrees with the above assessment the two statements of R. Eliezer do indeed contradict each other. His answer is that R. Eliezer changed his mind. Originally he did hold that one had to eat fourteen meals in the sukkah. Later, he recanted and agreed with the sages only the first night is obligatory and so this is the only night that need be made up.
משלים במאי? אילימא בריפתא – סעודה דיומיה קא אכיל! אלא, מאי ישלים – ישלים במיני תרגימא. תניא נמי הכי: אם השלים במיני תרגימא – יצא. שאל אפוטרופוס של אגריפס המלך את רבי אליעזר: כגון אני, שאיני רגיל לאכול אלא סעודה אחת ביום, מהו שאוכל סעודה אחת ואפטר? – אמר לו: בכל יום ויום אתה ממשיך כמה פרפראות לכבוד עצמך, ועכשיו אי אתה ממשיך פרפרת אחת לכבוד קונך?
How does one make up for it?
If you say with bread, he’s just eating the [obligatory] meal of the festival day?
Rather how does he make up for it? By eating various kinds of desert.
So it has also been taught: If he made up [for a meal he has missed] with various kinds of desert he fulfilled his obligation. The assistant of King Agrippa asked R. Eliezer, [A man] such as I, who eats only one meal a day, may I eat one meal [in the Sukkah] and be free [of my obligation]? He answered him, Every day you draw out [the meal] with all kinds of appetizers for your own honor, and now you cannot add one appetizer for the honor of your Creator?
If one has to make up the meal, the question is how to do so? After all, if he eats an extra meal involving bread how would one know that this meal is to make up the missed first meal? What he’s really doing is just eating the meal that he has to anyway on that night.
The resolution is that he adds desserts to the meal he eats on the last night. He finishes his regular meal and then clears the plates, and then eats foods that he would not have eaten had he not missed the meal on the first night. This way he makes it clear that he is eating extra.
The Talmud supports this with a story about King Agrippa, a legendary Jewish king whom the rabbis portray as a good king. The king’s assistant asks what he should do, since he eats only one meal a day. For him it is regular to eat one meal, not two meals. R. Eliezer answers that since he always adds a variety of appetizers to his meal, he should do so on Sukkot and that can be considered his second meal. From here we can see that this meal need not consist of bread.
Note that this last baraita does not reflect the notion that R. Eliezer changed his mind about the requirement to eat fourteen meals in the sukkah. This is a complicated question and there are many, many commentaries on this sugya, but I have tried to keep my commentary simple.