Uma succa com mais de vinte côvados é pasul (imprópria), [pois uma succa deve ser uma habitação temporária, como está escrito (Deuteronômio 16:13): "O festival de sucote você fará por si mesmo por sete dias". A Torá aqui diz: Faça uma succa (para durar) por (um período de) sete dias. E acima de vinte côvados, a pessoa não faz uma habitação temporária, mas permanente.] R. Yehudah governa-a kasher, [sustentando que uma succa deve ser uma habitação permanente. A halachá não está de acordo com R. Yehudah.] E os seguintes são impróprios: um que tem menos de vinte passos de mão, [sendo esta uma habitação fétida, e um não vive em uma habitação fétida.], Um sem três paredes, [está sendo escrito (Levítico 23:42): "Em sucote", "em sucote", "em sucote", dois defeituosos (sem o vav) e um plene (com o vav, tendo o efeito de dois): um, para a schach (a cobertura da succah), o significado de "succah" sendo "schach", deixando-nos com três, por três paredes. Uma halachá de Moisés no Sinai "vem e reduz uma parede", colocando-a na mão. Para que fiquemos com duas de tamanho regulatório, e uma, mesmo uma largura de mão. Portanto, se uma succah tiver duas paredes, uma próxima à outra, uma terceira parede será feita com um pouco mais de uma largura de mão e colocada a menos de três dimensões de uma das duas paredes. Por qualquer coisa a menos de três passos de distância de algo é considerado como unido a ele (lavud), de modo que (a terceira parede) seja considerado como um dos quatro passos de mão, de modo que a maior parte do muro seja feita e tenhamos uma sucção de três paredes, às quais deve ser adicionada a forma de uma entrada. E se as duas paredes estiverem opostas uma à outra, com um espaço vazio no meio, é trazida uma prancha com mais de quatro passagens de mão e posicionada a menos de três passagens de uma das duas paredes, de modo que a prancha seja considerada uma das sete côvados, que é o tamanho (necessário) para o kashruth de uma succa de comprimento e largura; uma succa precisa ter sete por sete para conter a cabeça e a maior parte do corpo e da mesa—seis por seis para a cabeça e a maior parte do corpo, e um por um para a mesa.] e um cujo sol é mais do que sua sombra. [Mas, se são iguais, é kasher; e é assim somente quando são iguais abaixo, no chão da succa, caso em que é certo que, acima, na escória, a sombra é maior que o sol, como as pessoas dizem: "Um zuz acima é um astira (meio zuz) abaixo."] Um velho succah—Beth Shammai governa pasul, e Beth Hillel governa kasher. O que é "uma velha succah"? Um que foi feito trinta dias antes do festival. Mas se foi feito para o festival, mesmo a partir do início do ano, é kasher. [Beth Shammai o governa pasul, pois eles exigem uma succah lishmah (por causa da mitzvá); mas este foi feito sem essa intenção. Mas se foi feito dentro de trinta dias do festival, já que nesse período as pessoas revisam o halachoth do festival, presume-se que foi feito lishmah. Antes de trinta dias, assume-se o contrário. E Beth Hillel decide que é kasher, pois eles não exigem uma succa (a ser feita) pelo bem da festa.]
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.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
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.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
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.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
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.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
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.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
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.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
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.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
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.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
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.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
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.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
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.
