Sefer Nechemia Ch. 8 - The Return of Sukkot

“They did not do, etc.” Meaning, that the hearts of all who came there were good with Gd, and to read each day from the scroll of the Torah of Gd; it appears they did this in the days of Joshua ben Nun too, to read from the scroll of the Torah of Gd. Or, the reference of “they did not do” thus is to make Succot with their hearts all toward Gd.

And when the book of Ezra says, “And they celebrated Succot,” it means with praise and joy and offerings and the four species, even though they did not fulfill Succah properly… And the flow of the text indicates that this view is more clearly correct.

Rama Orach Chaim 637 states that one may not place a succah in a public space. Since Jerusalem was not split among the tribes, it had no private space, just as one may not rent out a home in Jerusalem for the residents do not own them. Therefore, they could not make a succah there. And since in Ezra’s day they acquired Israel anew with chazakah and sanctified it, his court enacted that they may make succot in Jerusalem and other public areas, as stated in Tosefta Bava Kama 6 that a court-enacted condition permitted creating succot in public spaces. This means that Ezra’s court of that time enacted it, for otherwise they could not have created succot in Jerusalem…

54: Khazar: I did not see only that the people of the Second Temple had already forgotten the Torah, not knowing the mitzvah of Succah until they found it recorded… This demonstrates the loss of the Torah. 55: Habr: Then we today are wiser and more knowledgeable than they were; we know the entire Torah, as we think. 56: Khazar: That’s what I mean. 57: Habr: If we were instructed to bring korbanot today, would we know how to slaughter them, on what side… And what the kohanim were obligated to do in terms of holiness, purity, anointing…. 58: Khazar: We would not know, only from a kohen or prophet. 59, 61: Habr: But you see that the people of the Second Temple built an altar… One who knows all of these details of the Torah, could he not know how to make a succah… 62: Khazar: Then what is the meaning of “And they found recorded in the Torah.” 63: Habr: Clearly, it is because the recorder of the text was not sensitive to hidden matters, but only wrote that which was public and revealed. He did not record any of the wisdom Joshua received from Gd and Moshe, but he recorded the day the Jordan halted and the day the sun halted and the day of the [national] circumcision because they were publicized to the masses… For the intent of the text was to record only that which was known to the masses, which the entire nation carried, but the private matters held by individuals were lost from him, other than a minority of those matters… And so he did not record of the matters of Ezra and Nechemiah, only that which was known to the masses. And the day of making the succah was a public day, in the nation’s agitation and ascending to the mountains for olive leaves and myrtle leaves and date leaves and leaves of braided wood. And when it said, “And they found written,” it means the nation and masses heard and they were agitated, wanting to make succot. But individuals never lost an easy mitzvah, certainly a great one, and the text intended only to elevate that day…