Shulchan Aruch: Chapter 641 - Blessing Shehecheyanu is Not Recited over Construction of a Sukkah

Menachos 42a-b.

I.e., almost all the other mitzvos have similar blessings.

Constructing it is thus merely a preparatory phase in the observance of the mitzvah.

In Likkutei Sichos, Vol. 29, p. 496, the Rebbe distinguishes between preparatory phases that exist at different levels:

(a) Constructing the sukkah is a mitzvah in its own right. This is the stance of the Talmud Yerushalmi (Sukkah 1:2), which rules accordingly — though the halachah does not follow this ruling — that a blessing should be recited at the time of construction. This stance somewhat resembles an avodah sheyesh achareha avodah (“an avodah that is followed by an[other] avodah”), i.e., a phase in the sacrificial service in the Beis HaMikdash that is brought to completion only by certain supplementary activities, as opposed to an avodah tamah (lit., “a consummated service”). See Yoma 24a.

(b) Constructing the sukkah is considered part of the mitzvah. This is the view of the Talmud Bavli (Menachos 42b), which the Alter Rebbe follows in our text.

(c) Further removed and less connected kinds of preparation are called machshirei mitzvah — preparatory activities that enable a mitzvah to be ultimately performed, e.g., chopping wood to make coals for fashioning a knife for circumcision (see Shabbos 130a).

(d) Some other preparations are so distantly related to their respective mitzvos that the question of reciting a berachah over them does not even arise.

In the same source the Rebbe also contrasts the above cases with the preparation of a lulav. The latter case is not mentioned at all by the Alter Rebbe in connection with the blessing Shehecheyanu, though Rambam equates it with building a sukkah and requires that this blessing be recited at that time (see Mishneh Torah, Hilchos Berachos 11:8, 9).

Sukkah 46a.

In the original, Kiddush HaYom (lit., “the Kiddush of the day”). This does not mean “the daytime Kiddush,” but “the sanctification of the [festive] day.”

Eruvin 40b.

I.e., the mitzvah of reciting Kiddush for the festival, and the mitzvah of building the sukkah. It also includes the mitzvah of dwelling in the sukkah.

Likkutei Sichos (Vol. 22, p. 127, note 42) notes the view of certain authorities that if one recited the blessing Shehecheyanu when building the sukkah, he should not recite it again at the beginning of the festival — because “the essence of the festival is for the sake of the sukkah.”

That the blessing Shehecheyanu recited during Kiddush also covers the mitzvah of sukkah.

For he is not fulfilling the mitzvah of dwelling in the sukkah at the time he recites the blessing.

On this sequence, see sec. 643, footnote 5 below.

For one may fulfill the mitzvah of dwelling in a sukkah in a sukkah that is not his own, as stated in sec. 637:3.