[Avodah] Tur-sukkot

[Rich, Joel via Avodah]

One often hears the Tur on why sukkot is now and not Nissan. It seems to me it's often stated as now it's cold so no one would sit in the sukkah and so it's noticeable that we do. It struck me as strange since in Israel it's not particularly cold this time of year. The actual language of the Tur is not about cold but about rain. The Yaavetz questions the rain (based on the fact one wouldn't sit in the sukkah in the rain) and adds the cold. Lulai dmistifina I would have simply understood the Tur as saying it's a mindset thing - as the rainy season approaches people tend to move inside in anticipation, whether the rain has come or not (like no straw hats after Labor day).
GT
Joel Rich

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[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Sun, Oct 12, 2014 at 08:22:35PM -0400, Rich, Joel via Avodah wrote:
: One often hears the Tur on why sukkot is now and not Nissan. It seems to
: me it's often stated as now it's cold so no one would sit in the sukkah
: and so it's noticeable that we do. It struck me as strange since in
: Israel it's not particularly cold this time of year. The actual language
: of the Tur is not about cold but about rain...

Which is also rare enough this time of year for it to be considered
a siman. (It happens to be a siman kelalah, but that's not the detail
I'm focusing on.) If it weren't a long shot, reading too much into the
presence of rain wouldn't be consistent with living with hesteir Panim.

: Lulai dmistifina I would have simply understood the Tur
: as saying it's a mindset thing - as the rainy season approaches people
: tend to move inside in anticipation, whether the rain has come or not...

FWIW, I don't know why there is a reason to be reluctant to understand
the Tur (OC 625) this way. He talks about what's nikeres, and therefore
we make a sukkah at a time when "vederekh kol adam latzeis meisukaso".
I think the "mindset thing" idea is pashute pesht.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha