Una succah che è più alta di venti cubiti è pasul (non idoneo), [poiché una succah deve essere una dimora temporanea, scritta (Deuteronomio 16:13): "La festa del succoth ti preparerai per sette giorni". La Torah dichiara: Fai una succah (per durare) per (un periodo di) sette giorni. E oltre venti cubiti, uno non fa una dimora temporanea, ma permanente.] R. Yehudah lo governa kasher, [sostenendo che una succah deve essere una dimora permanente. L'halachah non è conforme a R. Yehudah.] E i seguenti non sono adatti: uno che è meno di venti volantini, [essendo questa un'abitazione fetida e uno non vive in un'abitazione fetida.], Uno privo di tre mura, [in fase di scrittura (Levitico 23:42): "In successione", "in successione", "in successione", due difettosi (senza il vav) e un plene (con il vav, con l'effetto di due): uno, per lo schach (il rivestimento della succah), il significato di "succah" è "schach", lasciandoci con tre, per tre pareti. Un'alachah per Mosè sul Sinai "arriva e riduce un muro", ponendolo a un soffio. In modo che ci rimangano due di dimensioni regolamentari e uno, persino un soffio. Pertanto, se una succah ha due pareti, una accanto all'altra, una terza parete è costituita da un po 'più di un soffio e posta a meno di tre passi da una delle due pareti. Poiché qualsiasi cosa a meno di tre passi da qualcosa è considerata unita (lavud), così che (la terza parete) è considerata come una delle quattro mani, così che la maggior parte del muro è fatta e abbiamo una succah di tre muri, a cui deve essere aggiunta la forma di un ingresso. E se le due pareti sono una di fronte all'altra, con uno spazio vuoto nel mezzo, viene portata una tavola leggermente più di quattro volani e si trovava a meno di tre volate di distanza da una delle due pareti, in modo che la tavola sia considerata una delle sette cubiti, che è la dimensione (necessaria) per il kashruth di una succah in lunghezza e larghezza, una succah che deve essere sette per sette per contenere la testa e la maggior parte del suo corpo e della sua tavola—sei per sei per la sua testa e la maggior parte del suo corpo, e uno per uno per il suo tavolo.], e uno il cui sole è più che la sua ombra. [Ma se sono uguali, è kasher, e questo è così solo quando sono uguali sotto, sul terreno della succah, nel qual caso è certo che sopra, nello schach, l'ombra è maggiore del sole, come si dice: "Uno zuz sopra è un'astira (mezzo zuz) sotto."] Una vecchia succah—Beth Shammai lo governa pasul e Beth Hillel lo governa kasher. Che cos'è "una vecchia succah"? Uno che è stato realizzato trenta giorni prima del festival. Ma se è stato creato per il bene del festival, anche dall'inizio dell'anno, è kasher. [Beth Shammai lo governa pasul, poiché richiedono una succah lishmah (per il bene della mitzvah); ma questo è stato realizzato senza tale intenzione. Ma se è stato realizzato entro trenta giorni dal festival, poiché in quel periodo la gente rivede l'Halachoth del festival, si presume che sia stato creato Lishmah. Prima di trenta giorni, si presume altrimenti. E Beth Hillel lo governa come kasher, perché non richiedono una succah (da fare) per il bene 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.
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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.
