All the World’s a Succah

The Gemara (Avodah Zarah 3b) describes how, at the End of Days, the non-Jewish nations will protest having been deprived of the opportunity to fulfill Hashem’s mitzvos. In response, Hashem will give them none other than the mitzvah of Succah to prove their mettle as mitzvah observers.

The non-Jew will enter his succah, only to depart in a huff moments later when Hashem harnesses the sun’s intense rays to make that temporary abode unbearably hot. And, the Gemara foretells, as each non-Jew storms out of his hut, he will deliver a frustrated, disdainful kick at his succah’s walls.

But doesn’t the halachah itself exempt from this mitzvah one who experiences discomfort in the succah due to heat or cold? The Gemara itself poses this question, and its rhetorical response is an incisive one: “Exempt they may be — but need they kick at the succah, too, on their way out?” What is the Gemara telling us, and how does it relate to whether these nations are fit for mitzvah observance as a whole?

In a piyut appearing in the Succos machzor, the paytan speaks of Klal Yisrael fulfilling the mitzvah of Succah “with its measurements… its walls… its sechach, its shade, its entering and exitings.” Its exitings? What could that possibly mean?