Sukkah, Daf Kaf, Part 6

 

Introduction

The first mishnah of chapter 2 teaches that a person who sleeps underneath a bed inside the sukkah has not fulfilled his obligation to dwell in the sukkah. This is because the bed, which is not valid skhakh acts as a barrier between him and the valid skhakh above.

We should note that in mishnaic and talmudic times it was clearly customary and obligatory to sleep inside the sukkah. The practice of not sleeping in the sukkah has its origins in cold medieval Europe where a person would truly suffer by sleeping in the sukkah.

 

 

/משנה/. הישן תחת המטה בסוכה – לא יצא ידי חובתו. אמר רבי יהודה: נוהגין היינו שהיינו ישנים תחת המטה בפני הזקנים ולא אמרו לנו דבר. אמר רבי שמעון: מעשה בטבי עבדו של רבן גמליאל שהיה ישן תחת המטה, ואמר להן רבן גמליאל לזקנים: ראיתם טבי עבדי, שהוא תלמיד חכם ויודע שעבדים פטורין מן הסוכה, לפיכך ישן הוא תחת המטה. ולפי דרכינו למדנו שהישן תחת המטה לא יצא ידי חובתו.

 

He who sleeps under a bed in the sukkah has not fulfilled his obligation.

Rabbi Judah said: we had the custom to sleep under a bed in the presence of the elders, and they didn t say anything to us.

Rabbi Shimon said: it happened that Tabi, the slave of Rabba Gamaliel, used to sleep under the bed. And Rabban Gamaliel said to the elders, Have you seen Tabi my slave, who is a scholar, and knows that slaves are exempt from [the law of] a sukkah, therefore he sleep under the bed. And incidentally we learned that he who sleeps under a bed has not fulfilled his obligation.

 

The problem with sleeping under a bed inside a sukkah is that there is a covering which creates a barrier over the person so that the skhakh is not what is covering him.

Rabbi Judah holds that the bed does not serve as a barrier between him and the sukkah and hence one who sleeps under a bed has fulfilled his obligation. Interestingly, Rabbi Judah notes that this was actually their custom. It might be that students visiting their rabbis on Sukkot, which seems to have been a norm on festivals, found the sukkot quite crowded. Hence, some people would sleep under the beds, causing the question to arise: is this legitimate behavior?

Section three: Rabbi Shimon agrees with the sages in section one and he brings a story to illustrate his point. Rabban Gamaliel owned a famous slave named Tabi. In tractate Berakhot 2:7 that Rabban Gamaliel respected his slave, and that when Tabi died he even mourned for him. In this mishnah, Tabi exemplifies his knowledge of halakhah by sleeping under the bed in the sukkah. He knew that he was exempt from the sukkah, as are all slaves, so he did a demonstrative act to let others know that one who sleeps under the bed has not fulfilled his sukkah obligation.

 

גמרא. והא ליכא עשרה! – תרגמא שמואל: במטה עשרה.

 

GEMARA. But there are not ten [handbreadths in the height of the bed]?

Shmuel interpreted, [that it refers to] a bed which is ten [handbreadths high].

 

The mishnah seems to say that sleeping under any sized bed means that one has not fulfilled the mitzvah of dwelling in the sukkah. But this is a problem if the bed is less than ten handbreadths high then it is not large enough to be a sukkah. How then could it form a barrier to the skhakh of the sukkah.

Shmuel answers that this bed is indeed ten handbreadths high. If it was any lower, one could sleep under it in the sukkah without it forming a barrier.