Sukkah, Daf Kaf Vav, Part 2
Introduction
This sugya deals with watchmen and whether they are exempt from the mitzvah of the sukkah.
תנו רבנן: שומרי העיר ביום – פטורין מן הסוכה ביום, וחייבין בלילה. שומרי העיר בלילה – פטורין מן הסוכה בלילה, וחייבין ביום. שומרי העיר בין ביום ובין בלילה – פטורין מן הסוכה בין ביום ובין בלילה. שומרי גנות ופרדסים – פטורין בין ביום ובין בלילה, –
Our rabbis taught: The day watchmen of a town are exempt from the sukkah by day and obligated at night; night watchmen are exempt by night and obligated by day; day and night watchmen are exempt both by day and at night.
Watchmen of gardens and orchards are exempt both by day and by night.
People who are guarding the city generally can go home when they are not working. Therefore, when they are out at the gates or walls watching the city, they are exempt. But when they are home, they must sleep and eat in the sukkah. In contrast, people watching gardens and orchards are outside of the city and don’t come home every day. Therefore, they are exempt all of the time, day and night. In essence, they are always on the job.
וליעבדי סוכה התם וליתבו!
אביי אמר. תשבו כעין תדורו.
רבא אמר: פרצה קוראה לגנב.
מאי בינייהו? – איכא בינייהו דקא מנטר כריא דפירי.
But let them make a Sukkah there and dwell in it?
Abaye said, "You shall dwell" as you normally dwell.
Rava said: The breach calls out to the thief.
What practical difference is there between them?
The practical difference is when they are guarding a pile of fruit.
The Talmud asks why the orchard or garden watchmen can’t just make a sukkah out in a field and dwell there. Abaye explains that there is a midrash on the word "dwell" in the context of Sukkot. The word "dwell" implies that your "dwelling" in the Sukkah should be like your "dwelling" in a house. In talmudic times used to take out their furniture from the house, the bed, the mattress, and put it in the sukkah and make it like their homes. Since the watchman can’t do this when he is out in the field, he is exempt from the sukkah altogether.
Rava offers a different reason for why the watchman is exempt from the sukkah it will impede his job performance. If he goes into a sukkah, a place with walls, the thief will see that he is not guarding the orchard and will take the opportunity to steal the produce.
As often happens, the Talmud asks why give two reasons for one halakhah? What is the practical difference between the reason offered by Abaye and that offered by Rava? The difference is expressed in a case where the watchman is out in the field but his only duty is to watch a pile of produce. In such a case he can build the sukkah and still guard the produce, so Rava would say that he is liable to dwell in the sukkah. Abaye would say that since he still can’t bring his stuff out there to the fields, he can’t "dwell" as he normally does, so he is exempt.