Si un toit est tombé [au milieu] et qu'il a mis du schach là (dans l'espace ouvert), [de sorte que les murs soient à distance du schach, c'est kasher.] S'il y a quatre coudées entre le mur et le schach, c'est pasul. [Si, moins que ça, c'est kasher. Car c'est une halakha à Moché sur le Sinaï que nous disons "un mur courbé" (est kasher) jusqu'à quatre coudées. Nous percevons le toit de la maison comme une extension du mur, allant jusqu'au schach (et il ne peut pas dormir sous.) Il en est de même pour une cour avec un exèdre, [où il a mis schach dans «l'atmosphère» du cour, éloignée des murs de l'exèdre. (Un exèdre est un endroit entouré de trois murs)]. Une grande souccah, cerclée (sur le dessus) par quelque chose qui ne peut pas être utilisé comme schach—S'il y a au-dessous, (c'est-à-dire d'où il commence, jusqu'au mur) quatre coudées, c'est pasul. [Toute souccah où, si le pasul schach était enlevé, il resterait sept longueurs de main sur sept de schach casher, est appelée "une grande souccah". ("entouré par quelque chose qui ne peut pas être utilisé comme schach" :) seulement sur le côté (du toit), où la souccah est rendue pasul seulement s'il y a quatre coudées de pasul schach en raison de (la perception de) "un pli -au-dessus du mur "; mais au milieu de la souccah, il la rend pasul (même) avec (seulement) quatre largeurs de main. Et l'espace sans schach du tout, que ce soit au milieu ou sur le côté, rend la succah pasul avec trois largeurs de main (d'un tel espace).]
Bartenura on Mishnah Sukkah
בית שפחת – its roof is in the middle, and the walls are distant from the festive covering of the Sukkah, it is valid.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Sukkah
Introduction
In yesterday’s mishnah we learned that if there is a three handbreadth horizontal gap between the skhakh and the walls the sukkah is invalid. Today we learn that this is only true if there is a gap. If there is material in this gap separating the wall from the skhakh and the material is not valid for skhakh, then the sukkah is invalid only if the invalid skhakh is greater than four cubits.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Sukkah
אם יש מן הכותל לסכך שכר ארבע אמות פסולה – less than this is valid, and it is a traditional interpretation of a written law (dating from Moses as delivered from Sinai) that a curved wall (Talmud Sukkah 4a) [is valid] up to four cubits, and we see the roof of the house as if the top of the wall is crooked/curved and comes up to the valid festive covering of the Sukkah, but he should not sleep underneath it.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Sukkah
If [the roof of] a house is opened, and he placed skhakh over it, if there is a distance of four cubits from the wall to the covering, it is invalid. In this case a person opened a hole in the roof of his house and covered the hole with valid skhakh. This is a valid sukkah as long as the hole is less than four cubits from the walls. This space between the walls and skhakh is not open, but rather has a regular roof (plaster and wood). The roof is considered as if it is part of the walls, at least for a distance of four cubits. As an aside, I have heard of people who actually do this. They have a retractable roof, less than four cubits from the walls and they open it up on Sukkot and have a sukkah in their house!
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Bartenura on Mishnah Sukkah
וכן בחצר שהיא מוקפת אכסדרה – and he made the festive covering over the air-pace of the courtyard, far from the walls of the peristyle/covered place in front of the house, and the peristyle is a place surrounded by three divisions.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Sukkah
Similarly in the case of a courtyard which is surrounded by columns. The mishnah notes another possible circumstance in which this halakhah is applicable. A courtyard is surrounded by a section of columns and covered with a roof. In such a case, the open space is slightly removed from the walls. If he covers the open space with valid skhakh and the walls are no more than four cubits from the skhakh, then the sukkah is valid.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Sukkah
סוכה גדולה – all where if he would take the festive covering of the Sukkah, it would be invalid, for there would remain seven handbreadths by seven handbreadths of festive covering, it would be valid. This is a large Sukkah.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Sukkah
A large sukkah which was surrounded with material which is invalid for skhakh, if there is a space of four cubits beneath it, it is invalid. This final case is pretty much the same halakhic situation as that in the first two. Again, a person has a sukkah in which there is some distance from the skhakh in the middle to the walls on the side. If he fills in this gap with material that is invalid for a sukkah (perhaps he does not have enough kosher material which he can use) than the sukkah is valid. Obviously, in all three cases in the mishnah, when he goes to sit or dwell in the sukkah, he must sit underneath valid skhakh.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Sukkah
שהקיפוה בדבר שאין מסככין בו – and especially from the side we say that invalid S’khakh does not invalidate other than four cubits, for we require that the wall is curved, but in the middle of the Sukkah, it invalidates if it is four cubits, but the empty space where there is no festive covering at all whether in the middle or from the side, invalidates at three handbreadths.
