Une soucca de plus de vingt coudées est pasul (inapte), [car une soucca doit être une habitation temporaire, il est écrit (Deutéronome 16:13): "La fête du succoth vous fera pendant sept jours". La Torah dit par la présente: Faites une souccah (pour durer) pendant (une période de) sept jours. Et au-dessus de vingt coudées, on ne fait pas une habitation temporaire, mais une habitation permanente.] R. Yehudah la règle Kasher, [soutenant qu'une souccah doit être une habitation permanente. La halakha n'est pas conforme à R. Yehudah.] Et les suivants sont inaptes: celui qui a moins de vingt largeurs de main, [ceci étant une habitation fétide, et on ne vit pas dans une habitation fétide.], Un sans trois murs, [il est écrit (Lévitique 23:42): "In succoth", "in succoth", "in succoth", deux défectueux (sans le vav) et un plene (avec le vav, ayant l'effet de deux): un, pour le schach (la couverture de la souccah), le sens de «souccah» étant «schach», nous laissant avec trois, pour trois murs. Une halakha à Moïse sur le Sinaï "vient et réduit un mur", le plaçant à une largeur de main. De sorte que nous nous retrouvons avec deux de taille réglementaire, et un, même une largeur de main. Par conséquent, si une souccah a deux murs, l'un à côté de l'autre, un troisième mur est constitué d'un peu plus d'une largeur de main et placé à moins de trois largeurs de main de l'un des deux murs. Pour tout ce qui est à moins de trois largeurs de main de quelque chose est considéré comme joint à lui (lavud), de sorte qu'il (le troisième mur) est considéré comme l'une des quatre largeurs de main, de sorte que la majeure partie du mur est faite et nous avons une souccah de trois murs, auxquels la forme d'une entrée doit être ajoutée. Et si les deux murs sont en face l'un de l'autre, avec un espace vide entre les deux, une planche un peu plus de quatre largeurs de main est amenée et se tient à moins de trois largeurs de main de l'un des deux murs, de sorte que la planche est considérée comme l'une des sept coudées, qui est la taille (requise) pour la kashruth d'une souccah en longueur et en largeur, une soucca devant être sept par sept pour contenir sa tête et la majeure partie de son corps et sa table—six par six pour sa tête et la plupart de son corps, et un par un pour sa table.], et un dont le soleil est plus que son ombre. [Mais s'ils sont égaux, c'est kasher, Et il n'en est ainsi que quand ils sont égaux en bas, sur le sol de la souccah, auquel cas il est certain qu'en haut, dans le schach, l'ombre est plus grande que le soleil, comme on dit: "Un zuz au-dessus est un astira (un demi-zuz) en dessous."] Une vieille souccah—Beth Shammai la règle pasul, et Beth Hillel la règle kasher. Qu'est-ce qu'une «vieille souccah»? Celui qui a été réalisé trente jours avant le festival. Mais s'il a été fait pour le bien du festival, même dès le début de l'année, c'est du kasher. [Beth Shammai la règle pasul, car ils ont besoin d'une succah lishmah (pour le bien de la mitsva); mais celui-ci a été fait sans une telle intention. Mais s'il a été fabriqué dans les trente jours suivant le festival, puisque pendant cette période les gens examinent le halachoth du festival, on suppose qu'il a été fait lishmah. Avant trente jours, on suppose le contraire. Et Beth Hillel la gouverne kasher, car ils n'ont pas besoin d'une souccah (à faire) pour le plaisir de la fête.]
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
