Sukkah, Daf Tet Zayin, Part 5

 

Introduction

This is a continuation of yesterday’s section concerning the validity of hanging partitions.

 

ואם תאמר: מעשה שנעשה בציפורי על פי מי נעשה? לא על פי רבי יוסי אלא על פי רבי ישמעאל ברבי יוסי.

 

And if you will says with regard to the incident which occurred at Tzippori, on whose authority was it done? Not on the authority of R. Yose, but rather on that of R. Ishmael son of R. Yose.

 

The Talmud now refers to an incident that occurred in Tzippori. R. Yose was no longer alive when the incident occurred so, the Talmud wonders, whom did they ask. The answer is R. Yose’s own son, R. Yishmael son of R. Yose.

 

ומאי מעשה? דכי אתא רב דימי אמר: פעם אחת שכחו ולא הביאו ספר תורה מערב שבת, למחר פירסו סדינין על גבי העמודים והביאו ספר תורה, וקראו בו. פירסו סלקא דעתך מהיכן הביאום בשבת? אלא: מצאו סדינין פרוסים על גבי העמודים, והביאו ספר תורה וקראו בו.

 

What was this incident? That when R. Dimi came he said: It once happened that that they forgot to bring a Torah scroll before Shabbat. The next day, they spread out sheets over the pillars and brought the Torah scroll and read from it.

Can it mean that they [really] spread them out? Where did they bring them from on Shabbat? Rather they found sheets [already] spread over the pillars, and therefore they brought the Torah scroll and read from it.

 

R. Dimi comes to Babylonia and tells the story of forgetting to bring a Torah scroll to a certain synagogue on Shabbat. It seems that the Torah scroll was in an adjacent courtyard and they needed to carry it from one courtyard to the other, but they hadn’t set up an appropriate eruv (actually, in this case it’s called a "shituf" which allows one to carry from one courtyard to another in the same alleyway) before Shabbat (an eruv/shituf is a shared meal that allows one to carry from one courtyard to another). To remedy the problem they took sheets that were already spread over pillars and hung them down. Despite the fact that these sheets didn’t reach all the way to the ground, they counted as partitions for R. Yose and his son hold that hanging partitions are valid.