Question: Are those who go on trips during Chol Ha’Moed Sukkot exempt from eating within a Sukkah while on the trip?
Answer: The Gemara (Sukkah 26a) states that individuals travelling are exempt from the Mitzvah of Sukkah while they are travelling. Our Sages derived this from the verse “You shall dwell in the huts” which they understood to mean that one must dwell in one’s Sukkah during the Sukkot holiday in the same manner one lives in one’s home throughout the year. Since throughout the year one may find it necessary to leave one’s home to travel elsewhere and one will eat outside of one’s home, similarly, during the Sukkot holiday if one must leave one’s home and there is no Sukkah in one’s current location, one may indeed eat outside of the Sukkah. Maran Ha’Shulchan Aruch (Chapter 640) rules likewise.
Nevertheless, Maran Rabbeinu Ovadia Yosef zt”l writes that clearly, our Sages only exempted one from the Mitzvah of Sukkah when there is a necessity for one to travel, such as one who must travel in order to earn his livelihood and the like which is also somewhat of a Mitzvah, for only in this case did our Sages derive that one must dwell in the Sukkah the same way one dwells in one’s home throughout the year since one does leave home sometimes throughout the year when there is a necessity to do so. However, if one goes on a trip during the holiday, our Sages certainly did not all one to exempt one’s self from the Mitzvah of Sukkah, for even with regards to the law of one who is uncomfortable in the Sukkah and therefore exempt from the Mitzvah, the Magen Avraham (Chapter 640) writes that if one cause himself the discomfort, one is not exempt from sitting in the Sukkah. Certainly then, one who goes on a trip cannot exempt himself from the Mitzvah of Sukkah (Chazon Ovadia-Sukkot, page 168).
Hagaon Harav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt”l rules likewise in his Sefer Halichot Shlomo (Moadim-page 172) that those who go on trips during the holiday do not retain the law of travelers who are exempt from the Mitzvah of Sukkah, for they can go on these trips at a different time and they are therefore obligated in the Mitzvah of Sukkah. One should therefore abstain from go on trips to places where one is unsure if there is a Sukkah present.
