Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Putting a plastic cover over a succah on Shabbos

Hi,

One may put a plastic cover atop a succah on Shabbos. This is not called "construction", because the cover is clearly temporary. Even putting such a cover atop a non-ritual hut would be permitted, because it's not something one leaves atop the hut.

The above assumes the plastic cover is directly atop the roof; one may not support it above the roof, for that would constitute the separate problem of constructing an independent roof (ohel).

(Rav Moshe Feinstein, Igrot Moshe Orach Chaim 5:39:4)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

2 comments:

  1. I was under the impression that the cover shoudl be unrolled a tefach before shabbat

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  2. Peter-
    Good question. This is where the cover is flush with the roof, as noted at the end of the post. Therefore, there is no concern for creating an ohel, and so there is no need to make sure that the ohel exists before Shabbos.

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