The Vilna Gaon writes that there are only two mitzvos in the Torah that one fulfills with his entire body, with all 248 limbs: Yeshivas Eretz Yisroel and sitting in the succah, with these two mitzvos one’s entire body enters into the cheftzah of the mitzvah. This is hinted at in a pasuk from Tehillim. When can one do a mitzvah b’shleimus, with the entirety of his being? ויהי בשלם סוכו ומעונתו בציון – “Then His Mishkan (succah) was in Yerusholayim and His Dwelling in Tzion” (Tehillim 76:3): In the succah and in Tzion, Eretz Yisroel. Furthermore, a person is not considered shaleim [complete], until he has fulfilled these two mitzvos.
Halachic Ramification
Rav Shlomah Zalman Auerbach writes that this concept may have halachic ramifications. The Gemara states that if one sleeps under a bed in the succah, he does not fulfill the mitzvah of succah. As Rashi explains, this is because there is an ohel between the person and the succah. Ohel is defined as a structure that is ten tefochim in height. According to the Gemara, if a bed is ten tefochim high, it creates a hefsek between the person and the succah. Following this reasoning, one who is sitting at a high table over 10 tefochim in the succah may not be fulfilling the mitzvah b’shleimus! If the table is ten tefochim high, then it serves as an ohel over his legs. Hence, the lower part of his body is not in the succah. Since, according to the Gra, the full fulfillment of the mitzvah is accomplished only when one is in the succah with his whole body, the mitzvah would not be ideally fulfilled under these circumstances.
Standing or sitting at a table lower than ten tefochim would allow one to fulfill the mitzvah b’sheleimus according to the Gra. (R’ Doniel Gladstein)
