פירוש על סוכה 1:8

שפודין – which is not appropriate for S’khakh/festive covering for the Booth, since it is not that which grows in the ground.

Introduction The first section of this mishnah is concerned with someone who uses metal objects as skhakh. The second section deals with the strange case of one who carves out room in a haystack to make a sukkah.

[בארוכות] המטה – utensils that [are susceptible] to receiving ritual defilement.

One who roofs his sukkah with iron spits or with bedposts, if the space between them equals them, it is valid. Neither iron spits nor bedposts can be used as skhakh because they are both made of metal. However, they can be put on top of the sukkah as long as there is valid skhakh between the posts or spits and the valid skakhah is of great quantity than the metal.

אם יש ריוח ביניהן כמותן – not exactly actually equivalent to their own breadth but not more, for the place of the spit is considered like breached/broken through part, and when one places appropriate S’khaha/festive covering for the Booth between each spit and there isn’t between them other than their own breadth, it is breached as it stands and is invalid, but by force, the space that is between them a bit more than their breadth.

One who hollows out a haystack to make for himself a sukkah, it is not a valid sukkah. In this case a person does not make a sukkah but rather the sukkah is made by his hollowing out a hole in a haystack. This is not valid because instead of making a sukkah, the sukkah has been made on its own. In other words, one must make his sukkah by taking skhakh and putting it on top of a framework of walls. The one who hollows out the haystack has made an absence of space, a negative act, but not the positive act of creating a sukkah. Hence the sukkah is not valid.

החוטט בגדיש – he took from the sheaves of grain below near the earth and made a cavity/space like the measure of a Sukkah and its festive covering, resulting that it is made and stands on its own. But the Torah stated, “do/make the holiday of Sukkot” (Deuteronomy 16:13) but not from what is already made, but if there was a cavity within of a handbreadth among the seven [handbreadths], it is made for the purpose of the festive covering, and if he hallowed it out until he raised the cavity.opening to the measurement of the height of the Sukkah of ten-handbreadths, this [is not] the way it it is made, for he is not repairing/fixing anything other than the walls, and regarding the walls, we don’t say, “do/make” and not from something already made, for it is like a Sukkah that is less than ten [handbreadths] and he hallowed it out in order to complete it for the ten [handbreadths required].