Schach Ban Turned Out Well

By COLlive reporter

Rabbi Tzvi and Noa Rivkin, the Chabad Shluchim in Bangalore, India, had a packed month of Tishrei organizing holiday services and activities.

For Sukkos, they purchased palm branches to be used as schach covering for the sukkah they built in their apartment building.

“The truck brought it to us early in the morning,” he says. “But then the official in charge of our residential area refused to allow us to use them because we didn’t have permission to use such branches.

“He said they would attract mice and rats to the whole area, and nothing we said would make his change him mind,” the rabbi said.

Instead, with a short time left before Sukkos, the Rivkins needed to find bamboo or reed mats to be used for the sukkah, in accordance with halacha.

Now they were tasked with getting rid of the palm branches and do it as soon as possible. They hired a driver that would dump the wasted schach in a nearby forest.

“In middle of the way, a car stopped the truck,” Rivkin tells. “Out comes a Jewish women and says that she and her husband built a sukkah for the very first time and were looking for schach for a few days now.

“They suddenly saw a truck filled with fresh and fitting branches they can use – as if it came from Heaven. They soon found out that the schach was coming from the rabbi’s home.”