Sukkah, Daf Kaf Zayin, Part 6
Introduction
Another baraita about R. Eliezer on the festival.
תנו רבנן: מעשה ברבי אליעזר ששבת בגליל העליון בסוכתו של יוחנן ברבי אלעאי בקיסרי ואמרי לה בקיסריון, והגיע חמה לסוכה. אמר לו: מהו שאפרוש עליה סדין? אמר לו: אין לך כל שבט ושבט מישראל שלא העמיד ממנו שופט. הגיע חמה לחצי הסוכה, אמר לו: מהו שאפרוש עליה סדין? – אמר לו: אין לך כל שבט ושבט מישראל שלא יצאו ממנו נביאים, שבט יהודה ובנימין העמידו מלכים על פי נביאים. הגיע חמה למרגלותיו של רבי אליעזר, נטל יוחנן סדין ופירש עליה. הפשיל רבי אליעזר טליתו לאחוריו ויצא. לא מפני שהפליגו בדברים, אלא מפני שלא אמר דבר שלא שמע מפי רבו לעולם.
Our rabbis taught: It happened that R. Eliezer spent Shabbat in the Upper Galilee in the sukkah of R. Yohanan son of R. Ila’i in Caesarea or, as some say, in Caesarion and when the sun reached the Sukkah he said to him: Can I spread a cloth over it?
He said to him, "There was no tribe in Israel which did not produce a judge."
When the sun reached the middle of the Sukkah, he said to him, "Can I spread a cloth over it?"
He answered him, "There was no tribe in Israel which did not produce a prophet, and the tribes of Judah and Benjamin appointed their kings based on the words of the prophets."
When the sun reached the feet of R. Eliezer, R. Yohanan took a cloth and spread it over [the Sukkah].
R. Eliezer tied up his cloak, threw it over his back, and went out.
It was not in order to evade an answer [that he answered as he did] but because he never said anything which he had not heard from his master.
In this section of the baraita R. Eliezer is asked whether one can put up a sheet in the Sukkah to block out the sun. As we shall see, R. Eliezer does not want this done because he thinks it a violation of the rules of Shabbat and the Festival. However, as the end of the baraita notes, R. Eliezer never said anything that he didn’t hear directly from his master. He is the arch-conservative. He didn’t have a tradition he heard about the matter. Rather than say nothing, he keeps trying to shift the conversation to a discussion of what tribes judges and prophets came from. This doesn’t seem at all connected to the question he is being asked can I put up a sheet?
היכי עביד הכי? והאמר רבי אליעזר: אין יוצאין מסוכה לסוכה! – רגל אחר הואי, –
והאמר רבי אליעזר: משבח אני את העצלנין שאין יוצאין מבתיהן ברגל!
שבת הואי. –
How did R. Eliezer do this? Did not R. Eliezer say, "One may not go from one Sukkah to another?"
It was on another Festival.
But did not R. Eliezer say, "I praise the lazy who do not leave their houses on the Festival?
It was a Shabbat.
The Talmud now notes that R. Eliezer’s behavior in this story does not accord with his rulings in the baraitot above. First of all, R. Eliezer said that one should not go from one sukkah to another, one should stay in one’s own Sukkah for all of Shabbat.
The Talmud resolves this difficulty by saying that the story didn’t actually happen on Sukkot. While they were sitting in a sukkah, they were not doing so because of any halakhic obligation, they were doing so simply because it was too hot to be outside.
The next problem is that R. Eliezer thinks that people should stay home on the Festival. So how could R. Eliezer travel to see R. Yohanan b. Ilai.
The final answer is that this story took place on Shabbat it didn’t even happen on a festival. R. Eliezer allows one to travel to greet a fellow rabbi on Shabbat.
ותיפשוט ליה מדידיה, דתנן: פקק החלון, רבי אליעזר אומר: בזמן שקשור ותלוי – פוקקין בו, ואם לאו – אין פוקקין בו. וחכמים אומרים: בין כך ובין כך פוקקין!
התם הוא דמבטל, אבל הכא דלא מבטל – לא.
But could he not deduce [the answer] from his own statement, for we have learned: A window-shutter: R. Eliezer says if it is fastened or hung [on the window-frame] one may shut a window with it [on Shabbat], but if not, one may not shut a window with it; but the Sages say: in either case one may shut the window with it?
[No.] In the latter case it is [forbidden] since he annuls it, but in the former where he does not annul it, no.
Rabbi Eliezer did not wish to answer R. Yohanan b. Ilai’s question because he never said anything that he didn’t hear from his master. The reason that R. Eliezer didn’t want the sheet spread over him is that he seems to consider it a transgression of the prohibition of building on Shabbat. It sounds like he himself doesn’t have any traditions about whether one can erect a temporary tent on Shabbat. However, there is a mishnah in which R. Eliezer says it is forbidden to put a shutter back in a window on Shabbat because he considers this building. So why didn’t he just quote his own teaching.
The Talmud answers that the situations are different. In the case of the window shutter, when he puts the shutter back in its place it becomes part of the building. R. Eliezer considers this to be building. However, the sheet spread over him does not become part of the sukkah. Therefore, one can’t use the mishnah from Shabbat to prove that putting the sheet under the sukkah is prohibited. And since he didn’t want to say anything not already stated by his rabbi, he tried to change the subject.