Una succah que tiene más de veinte codos es pasul (no apta), [porque una succah debe ser una vivienda temporal, está escrito (Deuteronomio 16:13): "La fiesta de succoth te harás por siete días". La Torá por la presente dice: Haga una succah (que dure) por (un período de) siete días. Y más de veinte codos, uno no hace una vivienda temporal, sino permanente.] R. Yehudah lo gobierna como kasher, [sosteniendo que una succah debe ser una vivienda permanente. La halajá no está de acuerdo con R. Yehudah.] Y los siguientes no son aptos: uno que tenga menos de veinte anchos de mano, [esto es una vivienda fétida, y uno no vive en una vivienda fétida.], Uno que carece de tres paredes, [está escrito (Levítico 23:42): "En succoth", "en succoth", "en succoth", dos defectuosos (sin el vav) y uno plene (con el vav, que tiene el efecto de dos): uno, para el schach (la cubierta de la succah), el significado de "succah" es "schach", dejándonos con tres, por tres paredes. Una halajá a Moisés en el Sinaí "viene y reduce una pared", colocándola en un ancho de mano. Para que nos queden dos de tamaño reglamentario, y uno, incluso un ancho de mano. Por lo tanto, si una succah tiene dos paredes, una al lado de la otra, una tercera pared está hecha de algo más que un ancho de mano y se coloca a menos de tres anchos de distancia de una de las dos paredes. Para cualquier cosa a menos de tres anchos de distancia de algo se considera unido a él (lavud), de modo que (el tercer muro) se considera uno de los cuatro anchos de mano, de modo que la mayor parte del muro está hecho y tenemos una succah de tres paredes, a las que se debe agregar la forma de una entrada. Y si las dos paredes están opuestas entre sí, con un espacio vacío en el medio, se coloca un tablero de algo más de cuatro anchos de mano y se coloca a menos de tres anchos de una de las dos paredes, de modo que el tablero se considera uno de siete codos, que es el tamaño (requerido) para la kashruth de una succah en largo y ancho, una succah necesita ser siete por siete para contener la cabeza y la mayor parte de su cuerpo y su mesa—seis por seis para su cabeza y la mayor parte de su cuerpo, y uno por uno para su mesa.], y uno cuyo sol es más que su sombra. [Pero si son iguales, es kasher, y esto es así solo cuando son iguales abajo, en el suelo de la succah, en cuyo caso es cierto que arriba, en el schach, la sombra es mayor que el sol, como dice la gente: "Un zuz arriba es una astira (medio zuz) abajo"]. Una vieja succah—Beth Shammai lo gobierna pasul, y Beth Hillel lo gobierna como kasher. ¿Qué es "una vieja succah"? Uno que se hizo treinta días antes del festival. Pero si se hizo por el bien del festival, incluso desde el comienzo del año, es kasher. [Beth Shammai lo gobierna pasul, porque requieren una succah lishmah (por el bien de la mitzvá); pero este fue hecho sin tal intención. Pero si se hizo dentro de los treinta días del festival, ya que en ese período la gente revisa el halachoth del festival, se supone que se hizo lishmah. Antes de treinta días, se supone lo contrario. Y Beth Hillel lo gobierna como kasher, ya que no requieren una succah (por hacer) por el bien del festival.]
Bartenura on Mishnah Sukkah
סוכה שהיא גבוהה למעלה מעשרים אמה פסולה – for a Sukkah, we require a temporary dwelling, as it is written (Deuteronomy 16:13): “[After the ingathering from your threshing floor and your vat,] you shall hold the Feast of Booths for seven days,” the Torah said that you shall make a Sukkah for seven days, and higher than twenty cubits, a person does not make [for] his dwelling a temporary dwelling, but rather a permanent dwelling.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Sukkah
Introduction Tractate Sukkah begins with a mishnah that is remarkably similar to the first mishnah of Eruvin. It states the maximum and minimum height of a sukkah. We should note that the word “sukkah” in the mishnah sometimes refers to the “skhakh”, the dead branches used to make the sukkah’s roof. The mishnah pays far more attention to the roof of the sukkah than to its walls. The second half of the mishnah deals with an old sukkah, one which was not built to be a sukkah for the festival of Sukkot, but was built to serve as shade in general. In the Middle East many farmers build such structures in order to provide shade from the hot sun.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Sukkah
ור"י מכשיר – as he holds that the we require for the Sukkah a permanent dwelling. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Sukkah
A sukkah which is more than twenty cubits high is not valid. Rabbi Judah validates it. The roof of the sukkah cannot be more than 20 cubits higher than the ground. This is about 10 meters, which would make a very high sukkah. There are several reasons provided for this in the Talmud. At such a great height, one would not notice the skhakh, and noticing that one is sitting under skhakh is part of the experience of sitting in the sukkah. Another possibility is that if the skhakh is above twenty cubits one will be sitting in the shade of the walls and not the shade of the skhakh. Finally, a sukkah that is higher than twenty cubits will of necessity have to be built stronger. As it becomes more permanent, it becomes less like a sukkah and more like a house. As Rabbi Judah did with regard to the “post and beam” in Eruvin (see the intro to Eruvin, and the first mishnah) so too with regard to the sukkah he sets no limit as to a sukkah’s height.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Sukkah
ושאינה גבוהה י' טפחים – it is invalid, for it is a decayed/decomposed dwelling and no person dwells in a decayed/decomposed dwelling.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Sukkah
One which is not ten handbreadths high, or which does not have three walls, or which has more sun than shade, is not valid. The second section of the mishnah provides three requirements that everyone agrees with. First of all, the sukkah must be 10 handbreadths high. This is equivalent to about a meter high, still quite small. Were the sukkah smaller than ten handbreadths a person could not even sit inside it. Secondly, the sukkah must have three walls. Finally, the skhakh must provide more shade than the amount of sun it allows in.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Sukkah
ושאין לה ג' דפנות – as it is written (defectively, without the “vav” twice in Leviticus 23:42 and once more fully in Leviticus 23:43): “in booths,” “in booths,” “in booths”. Two are defective/lacking and one is full (see Talmud Sukkah 6b); one [of them] is for the S’khakh/the cover of the festive booth/Sukkah, for the explanation of [the word] “Sukkah” is S’khakh, there remains to them three for the three walls. A traditional interpretation of a law (i.e., a usage dating from Moses as delivered from Sinai) is brought and we diminish one wall and establish it as a handbreadth, there remains two walls according to the traditional law and the third [wall] is a handbreadth [long]. Therefore, a Sukkah which has two walls one adjacent to the other, we make a third wall which has in it a handbreadth and a bit more and set it up at less than three [handbreadths] from one of the [other] two walls, for anything where there is a gap that is less than three handbreadths [distant] is like a legal fiction of considering separated parts as united [if the gap is less than three handbreadths], and I is considered as if it is a wall of four handbreadths and the result is that most of the wall is made, and this Sukkah has three walls, and one must make the form of an opening for it. But if the two walls are opposite each other and the between them, it is perforated, one brings a partition/barrier of four handbreadths and a bit more and establishes it no less than three-handbreadths near one of the two walls and it is considered as if there is with this barrier seven handbreadths which is the appropriate measurement of a Sukkah lengthwise and by width, for the Sukkah must have seven [handbreadths] by seven [handbreadths] in order to support one’s head, the majority of one’s body and one’s table, six [handbreadths] by six [handbreadths] for one’s head and the majority of one’s body and one’s table and one handbreadth by one handbreadth for one’s table.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Sukkah
An old sukkah: Bet Shammai invalidates it and Bet Hillel validates it. What is an “old sukkah”? Any one which he made thirty days before the festival; but if he made it for the purpose of the festival, even at the beginning of the year, it is valid. Bet Hillel allows a person to use an old sukkah. For Bet Hillel the intention that went in to building the sukkah is not critical, what is critical is the use of the sukkah. In contrast, for Bet Shammai an old sukkah, one that was not made with the intent to use it on the festival, is invalid, even if it matches all of the other halakhic criteria. However, Beth Shammai agrees that any sukkah that was made thirty days before the festival is valid, since we can assume that he made it knowing that he might use it on Sukkot. The only debate is over a sukkah that was made more than thirty days before Sukkot without the intention of using it on Sukkot.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Sukkah
ושחמתה מרובה מצלתה פסולה – but when they are equivalent, when the sunlight is like the shade, it is valid, and specifically if they are equivalent from the bottom at the ground of the Sukkah, for it is known that above with the S’khakh/the cover of the festive booth, its shade is greater than its sunlight, for people say, like a Zuz from above like a silver coin/half-a-zuz from below.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Sukkah
בית שמאי פוסלין – for they require “Sukkah” (the first mention of the word) for itself, and it is made for an undefined purpose, for if it was made within thirty days of the Festival [of Sukkot] since we ask about the laws of the Festival thirty days prior to the Festival, if he is simply making a Sukkah for the purpose of the Festival, but prior to thirty days, he is not simply making it for the sake of the holiday.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Sukkah
וב"ה מכשירין – for they (i.e., the School of Hillel) do not require the [first use of the word] “Sukkah” for the purpose of the Festival.
