Leaving the Sukkah and the King Who Keeps His Children One More Day

The sukkah is for seven [days]. How so? When a person has finished eating [on the seventh day], he should not yet take apart his sukkah, but he may bring the vessels down from the time of the afternoon offering onward, out of respect for the final festival day. Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said in the name of Rav Chiyya bar Ashi in the name of Rav: a person must render his sukkah unfit for use [as a place to dwell] while it is still daytime. Rabbi Joshua ben Levi said: a person must recite Kiddush on the night of the final festival day inside his house. Rabbi Jacob bar Acha in the name of Rabbi Samuel said: if he recited Kiddush in this house and then changed his mind to eat in another house, he must recite Kiddush a second time. Rabbi Acha and Rabbi Chanina in the name of Rabbi Hoshaya said: one whose sukkah is dear to him may recite Kiddush on the night of the final festival day inside his house, and then go up and eat inside his sukkah, and he need not recite Kiddush a second time. Rabbi Abun said: Samuel's ruling follows Rabbi Chiyya, and Rabbi Hoshaya's follows Rabbi Joshua ben Levi. Rabbi Mana said: they do not actually disagree - the one who reported in Samuel's name spoke of a case where his intention was to eat in one house, while the one who reported in Rabbi Joshua ben Levi's name spoke of a case where his intention was not to eat in another house. Rabbi Joshua ben Levi said: It would have been fitting for the concluding assembly of the [autumn] Festival to be fifty days away [from the Festival, just as Shavuot is fifty days from Passover]. He told a parable: to what is the matter comparable? To a king who had daughters married off in a place nearby and daughters married off in a place far away. Those married nearby, there are days enough for them to come and go; but those married far away, there are not days enough for them to come and go. The king said: let me and you rejoice together for one [extra] day. So too at Passover, because Israel is going out from winter into summer and the trouble of the roads is not hard, therefore [the assembly] is far from it, fifty days, for there are days enough to come and go. But at the Festival, because Israel is entering from summer into winter and the trouble of the roads is hard, therefore [the assembly] is not far from it by fifty days, for there are not days enough to come and go. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: let Me and you rejoice together for one day. Therefore it must say, "On the eighth day you shall have a solemn assembly" (Numbers 29:35).