Sukkah, Daf Vav, part 4

 

Introduction

Today’s section deals with the laws of partitions.

 

מחיצין – הא דאמרן. – הניחא לרבי יהודה, אלא לרבי מאיר מאי איכא למימר? – כי אתאי הלכתא – לגוד ולבוד ודופן עקומה.

 

[As for the laws of] partitions, these are those referred to above.

That works according to R. Judah, but according to R. Meir what can one say?

The tradition refers to [the legal fictions] of extension, lavud, and the curved wall.

 

The idea that for a partition to be valid it cannot be less than ten handbreadths is a "halakhah to Moses from Sinai" for R. Judah (see the end of daf heh). But R. Meir holds that we learn those laws from the Torah. So then we must ask: what aspect of the laws of partitions are "halakhah?"

The Talmud provides three legal fictions that we shall encounter throughout the tractate. The first is "extension." This means that we can fictionally imagine a straight edge as going up into the air such that it creates a partition. It also could mean that the edge of a wall that doesn’t reach the ground can be looked at as if it reaches the ground.

The law of "lavud" means that a space less than three handbreadths does not count. For instance if there is a gap of less than three handbreadths in the skhakh then the skhakh is valid.