The Special Sukkah

A long time ago, in Yerushalayim, there lived a man named Reb Mottel. One thing special about Reb Mottel, was that he had a big, beautiful sukkah.

You see, in those days, in Eretz Yisroel, it was expensive to build a sukkah. Why? Because wood was very scarce. So, most people had a small sukkah. Some people, who were able to afford it, had a bigger sukkah, but it still was not very fancy.

But, Reb Mottel had a big, beautiful sukkah made out of wood. Every year, people would come from all over Yerushalayim, just to see Reb Mottel’s sukkah. Everybody—men, women and children alike—wanted to see Reb Mottel’s special sukkah.

Now, one year before Sukkos, on the day that Reb Mottel was going to put up his sukkah, a crowd had gathered around his house. They wanted to see Reb Mottel’s beautiful sukkah go up.

Well, to everyone’s surprise, Reb Mottel did not put up his big, beautiful sukkah. Instead, he put up a small, simple sukkah. People were wondering: “What happened to Reb Mottel’s old sukkah? Where is it? Why isn’t he putting it up?”

Someone went over to Reb Mottel, and said: “Reb Mottel, we are all wondering, what happened to your sukkah? Why did you put up such a small sukkah instead of your big sukkah? What happened?” Reb Mottel replied: “You want to hear the story of my sukkah? Here’s what happened:

“This past year, I found out that there was a little boy, an orphan, who was very sick. To be cured, he needed not only medicine, but he needed a hot bath every day. If he would not have that, the doctors said that he would ch”v pass away.

“The problem was that they could not find enough wood to make a fire every day to warm up the water. When I found out about this, I remembered my big sukkah that was made out of wood. I had plenty of wood!

“I told the doctors that I would take the little boy into my house, and take care of him. I told the doctors that I would make sure that he had a hot bath every day, and the medicine that he needed.

“The doctors agreed, so I brought the boy into my house, and every day, I took a part of my sukkah, and used it to heat the water for the boy’s bath. Soon, the entire sukkah was gone, but this little boy had a refuah sheleima, and his life was saved.

“This year, I had to get a small, plain sukkah, because the other sukkah had saved the life of another yid!”

And that is the story of “The Special Sukkah!”