The Medrash (Yalkut Shimoni, Parshas Emor) writes: א"ר אלעזר בר מריום למה עושים אנו סוכה אחר יום הכיפורים, לומר לך שכן את מוצא בראש השנה יושב הקב"ה בדין על באי העולם וביום הכיפורים הוא חותם את הדין, שמא יצא דינם של ישראל לגלות, ועל ידי כן הן עושין סוכה וגולין מבתיהם לסוכה והקב"ה מעלה עליהם כאילו גלו לבבל – “R’ Elozor son of Maryom says: Why do we make a succah after Yom HaKippurim? On Rosh Hashanah Hashem sits on his thrown and judges us, and on Yom HaKippurim it’s sealed, and perhaps it has been decreed on us that we need to go into exile. Therefore, we make a succah, and exile ourselves from our house, and we hope that Hashem treats this as exile.
The question is: If the mitzvah of succah is golus so to speak, why is the halachah that if one is uncomfortable in the succah he is exempt – golus isn’t supposed to be comfortable? On the contrary, the less comfort the better?
There are a number of answers:
1)
Many Achronim ask this question (see Apiryon, Parshas Emor, Be’er Yosef, Parshas Emor, Bikuray Yaakov 640 and others) and answer: The leaving of the house is the galus, and not the sitting in the succah, therefore, if one is uncomfortable in the succah he is exempt.
2)
The Be’er Yosef speaks at length about this question, and he says being in golus and being comfortable are not contradictory, and he says even when Klal Yisroel were in the midbar, they had Annanei HaKavod protecting them, see inside.
3)
Perhaps we can suggest, golus is supposed to be uncomfortable, however, Klal Yisroel must be aware that golus is not eternal and that there is a way out. Therefore, in the succah as well, there is a heter of mitzta’er to make us aware that we don’t have to remain in golus forever and there is a way out.
May the golus we are currently in come to a speedy end, and may we merit the speedy arrival of Moshiach and the rebuilding of the Beis HaMikdosh speedily in our days.
