Sukkah, Daf Mem Tet, Part 1

 

Introduction

This week’s daf begins with a discussion about the pits underneath the altar into which the libations would drain, both of water and wine. According to rabbinic mythology, reflective of their worldview, the Temple is the "navel of the world" it is where the dark forces suppressed underneath the ground, the abyss, connect to the world.

 

אמר רבה בר בר חנה אמר רבי יוחנן: שיתין מששת ימי בראשית נבראו, שנאמר +שיר השירים ז+ חמוקי ירכיך כמו חלאים מעשה ידי אמן. חמוקי ירכיך – אלו השיתין, כמו חלאים – שמחוללין ויורדין עד התהום, מעשה ידי אמן – זו מעשה ידי אומנותו של הקדוש ברוך הוא.

 

Rabbah b. Bar Hana said in the name of R. Yohanan: The pits were created during the six days of creation, for it is said, "The roundings of your thighs are like the links of a chain the work of the hands of a skilled workman" (Song of Songs 7:2): "The rounding of your thighs" refers to the pits; "like the links of a chain (חלאים)" implies that they are carved out (מחוללים) and descend to the abyss; "the work of the hands of a skilled workman" means that they are the skillful handiwork of the Holy One, blessed be He.

 

The rabbis usually understood Song of Songs metaphorically, not as a love song between a woman and a man, but as a love song between God and the people of Israel. Here the verse alludes to the legendary antiquity of the pits that lie underneath the altar in the Temple. Each of these sections is based on a wordplay from the verse. The word for thighs חמוקים is taken to mean hidden parts just as thighs are hidden, so too are the pits hidden under the altar. They are carved out and go all the way down to the abyss, where the foundation of the world lies. And they are the work of God i.e. they were not created when the Temple was built, but when the world was created.

 

תנא דבי רבי ישמעאל: +בראשית א’+ בראשית, אל תיקרי בראשית אלא ברא שית.

 

The school of R. Ishmael taught: Bereshit; read not bereshit but bara shit.

 

This midrash is based on a word play on the first word in the Torah. The first word in the Torah, bereshit, is not read according to its simple meaning, "In the beginning" but according to a midrash which separates the word into two "He created (bara) the pit (shit)."

 

תניא, רבי יוסי אומר: שיתין מחוללין ויורדין עד תהום, שנאמר +ישעיהו ה+ אשירה נא לידידי שירת דודי לכרמו כרם היה לידידי בקרן בן שמן. ויעזקהו ויסקלהו ויטעהו שרק ויבן מגדל בתוכו וגם יקב חצב בו. ויטעהו שרק – זה בית המקדש, ויבן מגדל בתוכו – זה מזבח, וגם יקב חצב בו – אלו השיתין.

 

It has been taught, R. Yose says, The cavity of the pits descends to the abyss, for it is said, "Let me sing of my beloved, a song of my lover for his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. And he dug it, and cleared it of stones, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also hewed out a vat therein" (Isaiah 5:1).

"And planted it with the choicest vine" refers to the Temple; "and built a tower in the midst of it" refers to the altar; and also hewed out a vat therein , refers to the pits.

 

In this midrash, R. Yose finds an allusion to the building of the Temple in the book of Isaiah. In the verse, Israel sings out a praise to its lover, God, for building the Temple, the altar and the pits underneath the altar.