Deuteronômio 16:13 Halacá: The Sabbath Epistle, Mishneh Torah, Shofar, Sukkah and Lulav & Kitzur Shulchan Arukh

Judah the Persian¹⁹ Mentioned by Ibn Ezra in his Commentary to the Pentateuch and elsewhere. Nothing is known of this scholar. (See Encyclopedia Judaica, second edition, vol. 11, p. 505.) said that the years used by Israel were solar years, because he found the festivals were on fixed dates: Passover when the barley ripens (Exodus 34:18), Pentacost at reaping time (ibid. 34:22), and Tabernacles at harvest time (Deuteronomy 16:13). However, what can be done since Moses did not specify the length of a year?²⁰ Since the Bible does not specify the exact length of a solar year, the Karites are left with the matter being undecided. This will also affect determination of the festivals. Also, how will he explain the use of the Hebrew term “hodesh” (new) for “month,” for what is renewed relative to the sun? The uncircumcised (Christians), because their years are solar years and they found that a full year contains twelve lunations, divided the days of the year into twelve parts, for this number is closest to the number of lunar months. The result is that some months are 30 days and some months are 31 days.²¹ Here Ibn Ezra accounts for the division of a year into twelve parts, even if one uses a solar calendar. However, the term “hodesh” would not be appropriate for such solar months.

The covering (skhakh) of the sukkah is not fit from everything. We may only roof with something that grows from the ground, that was detached from the ground, that is not [susceptible to] contracting impurity and that does not have a bad smell, nor constantly sheds or wilts.

Any sukkah that is made properly is fit — even though it is not made for the sake of the commandment. And that is so long as it was made for shade, like a hut for gentiles, a hut for animals and anything that is similar to them. But a sukkah formed on its own is disqualified — since it was not made for shade. And likewise [in a case of] one who dug out [sheaves] from a stack and made it into a sukkah: It is not a sukkah — since he did not gather this stack for shade. Hence if he made a cavity [in the stack] of a handbreadth across seven for the sake of a sukkah at the beginning, and afterwards dug out [more] to complete it to ten, it is fit. For its skhakh was made for the sake of shade.