Q. Re – 2390. Would it be permitted to have pets, such as dogs and cats, to come in to the succah?
What if someone is very attached to them?
A. On question 905 regarding one attending a neighborhood Simchas Bais Hashoeva and a neighbor walked in in the sukkah with his friendly, well behaved but rather large family dog, that did not seem to bother anyone and trilled the children. was it correct to bring in a dog to a sukkah. We wrote: “On question 861 on this forum, in regards to a seeing eye dog to go up the bimah when the blind owner is given an aliyah,…
Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit”a opinion is that in principle if one owns a dog that freely and constantly roams around his house, he would be allowed to be in the suka too, as this complies with “teshvu ke’in toduru,” dwell in you suka, as you would in your house. However, it is commendable to create and maintain a higher spirit of kedusha in the suka than in the house.
On entering someone else suka with a dog, he should ask permission first. As in previous question; the most important issue is to avoid this becoming a source of machlokes and conflict or for the ba’al habbais to publicly embarrass his guest.
The Rov maintains that in principle the same applies in your case. However, when the attachment to the animals is great, there is more room for leniency.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit’a
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