Sukkah, Daf Daled, Part 4
Introduction
Today’s section continues to discuss possible remedies to sukkot that are either too high or too low.
היתה פחותה מעשרה טפחים, וחקק בה כדי להשלימה לעשרה, אם יש משפת חקק ולכותל שלשה טפחים – פסולה, פחות משלשה טפחים – כשרה.
If [a sukkah] was less than ten handbreadths in height and one hollowed out [a hole] in order to bring it to [ten handbreadths], if there was a distance of three handbreadths from the edge of the holed out part to the wall, it is invalid; if the distance was less than three handbreadths it is valid.
The sukkah is less than ten handbreadths high, which means it is not valid, as we learned in the Mishnah. If he digs a hole in the ground in the middle of the sukkah so that the skhakh is ten handbreadths from the bottom of the hole, and the edges of the hole are less than three handbreadths from the wall, the sukkah is kosher. If they are more than three handbreadths from the walls, it is invalid.
מאי שנא התם דאמרת פחות מארבע אמות, ומאי שנא הכא דאמרת פחות משלשה טפחים?
Why do we say there less than four cubits , and here less than three handbreadths ?
The Talmud asks the obvious question. In the previous parts of this daf, we said that if the kosher part of the sukkah (under 20 cubits high) was four cubits from the walls, the walls could go with it. Now we say that the kosher part of the sukkah (over 10 handbreadths high) must be within 3 handbreadths of the wall. Why the inconsistency?
התם דאיתיה לדופן – פחות מארבע אמות סגיא, הכא לשוויי לדופן – פחות משלשה טפחים אין, אי לא – לא.
There where there is a wall, it is sufficient [if the distance is] less than four cubits; here, however, where a wall has to be made, [if the distance is] less than three handbreadths it is [valid]; otherwise it is not.
The answer is that in the case of the too high sukkah there already is a wall. A wall must be ten handbreadths high, and those walls were already plenty high. Therefore, they only need to be within four cubits of the platform that reduced the height of the skhakh.
In this case, the walls are not actually walls for without digging in the ground, the walls are not even 10 handbreadths high. For the hole in the ground to make them a wall, they must be within 10 handbreadths.
היתה גבוהה מעשרים אמה ובנה בה עמוד שהוא גבוה עשרה טפחים, ויש בו הכשר סוכה, סבר אביי למימר: גוד אסיק מחיצתא. אמר ליה רבא: בעינן מחיצות הניכרות, וליכא.
If [a sukkah] was more than twenty cubits high and one built in it a pillar ten handbreadths high, and [the pillar] was large enough for a valid sukkah,[in this case] Abaye intended to draw the partitions upward,
[But] Rava said to him: we require recognizable partitions and there are not.
In this case he builds a pillar, or a sort of platform, in the middle of the sukkah and the pillar is broad enough so that it itself could constitute a sukkah. It seems like the pillar is more than four cubits from the walls, otherwise we could count them with the pillar as we have already learned.
Abaye wants to employ a legal fiction whereby something that rises from the ground is accorded fictitious partitions that are drawn upward. That is to say, we imagine that the edges of the pillar are drawn up to the skhakh such that there are now valid walls. This principle is called "גוד אסיק" and we will encounter it throughout the Tractate.
Rava disagrees. The problem is that the walls of the sukkah must be recognizable, and not just legal fictions. We shall see that there are cases in which this principle is effective, just not this case.