Dear Rabbi Kornfeld,

Perhaps you might be kind enough to entertain another question. If 2 narrow cloth coverings on a succah can combine by lavud to form a covering more than 4 amos, why don't the boards which Rabbi Yehuda allows as s'chach also combine by lavud to be seen as more than 4 amos. And going further, why does not all succah covering which we use every year, be it a mat or just branches, combine by lavud and form a halachially solid cover for the succah, which would then be invalid?

Is lavud a matter of intention?

Yehuda -- Joel P. Wiesen, Ph.D., Director Applied Personnel Research 27 Judith Road Newton, Massachusetts 02459-1715 (617) 244-8859 Wiesen@personnelselection.com www.personnelselection.com/apr.htm

There is a dispute among the Poskim whether we apply Lavud l'Chumra, i.e. to disqualify rather than to qualify (Magen Avraham OC 632:5). If the Gemara regarding the combining of two cloths really meant to use Lavud to combine to make the Sukah Pasul (by making the Sechach a total of four Amos from the wall), than they should have brought proof from this Gemara to their discussion.

The truth is, though, that it seems our Gemara is not using the principle of Lavud, or even any combining factor, at all. Although it says that the cloths "combine" to invalidate the Sukah since the Sechach is four Amos from the wall, combination of the two cloths into one is not necessary. As long as the Sechach is kept more than four Amos from the wall, by however many slats or cloths or even open space that may be there, the Sukah is not valid. As Rav Yosef Ben-Arza points out in Yosef Da'as, the word "combine" in this context must be "Lav Davka."

If so, we cannot ask that Lavud should "combine" the slats on the roof of a Sukah into one big slat. Lavud never combines into one; it just adds another piece ("Lavud" = branch, Rashi), in between where there is empty space, it does not combine into one.

Best wishes, Mordecai