Si uno duerme debajo de una cama en una succah, no ha cumplido su obligación. [Esto, si la cama tiene veinte anchos de mano o más, en cuyo caso se considera una tienda de campaña, que actúa como una división entre él y la succah. (Y la mitzvá esencial de la succah es comer, beber y dormir allí).] R. Yehudah dijo: Solíamos dormir debajo de la cama antes que los ancianos, y no dijeron nada (en protesta). [R. Yehudah sostiene que una tienda temporal no anula una permanente. La halajá no está de acuerdo con R. Yehudah.] R. Shimon dijo: Una vez, Tevi, el sirviente de R. Gamliel estaba durmiendo debajo de la cama, y R. Gamliel dijo a los ancianos: "¿Observaron a Tevi, mi sirviente? es un estudioso de la Torá y sabe que los lazos están exentos de la (mitzvá de) succah. [Porque las mujeres están exentas de los mandamientos positivos basados en el tiempo; y (solo) esas mitzvoth vinculantes para las mujeres son vinculantes para los lazos.] Por lo tanto, él está durmiendo debajo de la cama." Y, por supuesto, [a pesar de que estaba hablando casualmente, expresando orgullo en su esclavo], nos enteramos de que alguien que duerme debajo de la cama (en una succah) no ha cumplido su obligación.
Bartenura on Mishnah Sukkah
הישן. לא יצא ידי חובתו – and as long as the bed will be ten handbreadths high, for then it is considered a tent and it is found that the tent interrupts between him and the Sukkah. But the essential Mitzvah of Sukkah is eating, drinking sleeping.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Sukkah
Introduction
This mishnah teaches that a person who sleeps underneath a bed inside the sukkah has not fulfilled his obligation to dwell in the sukkah. This is because the bed, which is not valid skhakh acts as a barrier between him and the valid skhakh above.
We should note that in mishnaic and talmudic times it was clearly customary and obligatory to sleep inside the sukkah. The practice of not sleeping in the sukkah has its origins in cold medieval Europe where a person would truly suffer by sleeping in the sukkah.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Sukkah
נוהגים היינו כו' – for he holds that a temporary tent does not come to cancel out a permanent tent. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Sukkah
He who sleeps under a bed in the sukkah has not fulfilled his obligation. The problem with sleeping under a bed inside a sukkah is that there is a covering which creates a barrier over the person so that the skhakh is not what is covering him. In the Talmud they restrict this halakhah to a bed that is ten handbreadths high, the minimum height of a sukkah. Sleeping under such a bed would be akin to sleeping in an invalid sukkah inside a valid sukkah. However, one may sleep under a smaller bed and still fulfill one’s obligation to dwell in the sukkah. Note that this is what allows one to sleep under a blanket in the sukkah. The blanket is less than ten handbreadths from the body.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Sukkah
עבדים פטורים מן הסוכה – for it is a positive time-bound commandment for which women are exempt, and any commandment for which a woman is liable, a slave is liable.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Sukkah
Rabbi Judah said: we had the custom to sleep under a bed in the presence of the elders, and they didn’t say anything to us. Rabbi Judah holds that the bed does not serve as a barrier between him and the sukkah and hence one who sleeps under a bed has fulfilled his obligation. Interestingly, Rabbi Judah notes that this was actually their custom. It might be that students visiting their rabbis on Sukkot, which seems to have been a norm on festivals, found the sukkot quite crowded. Hence, some people would sleep under the beds, causing the question to arise: is this legitimate behavior?
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Bartenura on Mishnah Sukkah
ולפי דרכנו למדנו – even though he did no specify other than mere profane talk (see Talmud Sukkah 28a), that he was praising his servant, we learn that someone who sleeps under the bed, etc.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Sukkah
Rabbi Shimon said: it happened that Tabi, the slave of Rabba Gamaliel, used to sleep under the bed. And Rabban Gamaliel said to the elders, “Have you seen Tabi my slave, who is a scholar, and knows that slaves are exempt from [the law of] a sukkah, therefore he sleep under the bed.” And incidentally we learned that he who sleeps under a bed has not fulfilled his obligation. Rabbi Shimon agrees with the sages in section one and he brings a story to illustrate his point. Rabban Gamaliel owned a famous slave named Tabi. In tractate Berakhot 2:7 that Rabban Gamaliel respected his slave, and that when Tabi died he even mourned for him. In this mishnah, Tabi exemplifies his knowledge of halakhah by sleeping under the bed in the sukkah. He knew that he was exempt from the sukkah, as are all slaves, so he did a demonstrative act to let others know that one who sleeps under the bed has not fulfilled his sukkah obligation.
