Sukkah, Daf Daled, Part 3
Today’s section continues with the case of a person building a platform inside a sukkah to reduce the size of the sukkah that is over 20 cubits high.
היתה גבוהה מעשרים אמה, ובנה איצטבא באמצעיתה, אם יש משפת איצטבא ולדופן ארבע אמות לכל רוח ורוח – פסולה, פחות מארבע אמות – כשרה.
If [a sukkah] was higher than twenty cubits and he built a platform in the middle of it, if there are four cubits on every side between the edge of the platform and the wall, it is invalid; but if the distance is less than four cubits, it is valid.
This is very similar to the previous case, but here he builds the platform right smack in the middle of the sukkah, not attached to any wall. Again, as we learned yesterday, if the platform/ledge is less than four cubits from the walls, the walls are considered its walls and we now have a sukkah that is less than 20 cubits high.
מאי קא משמע לן – דאמרינן דופן עקומה, היינו הך! –
What principle does this teach us? That we apply the rule of the curved wall ? But is not this principle identical with the former one?
The Talmud now asks a logical difficulty. If the principle we learn here is again "the curved wall" one can treat a wall removed by up to 4 cubits as if it were part of the sukkah then we learned that in the previous section. Why do we need to learn it again.
מהו דתימא: דופן עקומה מרוח אחת אמרינן, אבל כל רוח ורוח – לא, קא משמע לן.
What might you have thought? That we apply the rule of the curved wall on one side only, but not on every side, therefore it taught us [that we apply it to all sides also].
The answer is that this section teaches us that the principle of the "curved wall" can be applied even if you have to "curve" all of the walls. In the previous case the platform or ledge was adjacent to one of the walls. In this case it is not adjacent to any wall. Therefore, this source had to teach that we can pretend that all of the walls go with this platform and the reduced height of the sukkah is valid.