About four or five decades ago, Jews in a Brooklyn apartment house got together and built a sukkah in their backyard--with the permission of their Jewish landlord.
All went well during the first two days. But on the first day of Chol Ha-Moed, two cops appeared. They advised that some tenants--no doubt, anti-Semites--had complained about the noise in the backyard.
One cop asked, "Do you have a permit for erecting this structure?"
Of course, the Sukkah-dwelling Jews had no such permit.
The cops then issued a summons, charging the Jews with erecting an "unlawful" structure, and ordering them to remove it at once.
But one of the observant Jews--a lawyer, by trade--declared, "Don't worry. Leave it to me. I'll get this fixed."
The next day, he appeared in a city court before a Jewish judge he knew very well.
The judge examined the summons and issued his decision. "The summons is properly made out. We must comply. You have ten days to remove the 'unlawful' structure."
And he firmly struck the gavel on his bench. "Next case!"
He might as well have said, "Gut Yontif!"
Rabbi Murray Stadtmauer
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