Sukkah, Daf Yod Bet, Part 4
Introduction
Today’s section deals with using arrow shafts as skhakh.
אמר רב יהודה אמר רב: סככה בחיצין זכרים – כשרה, בנקבות – פסולה.
Rav Judah said in the name of Rav: If one covered a Sukkah with male arrow-shafts, it is valid; with female arrow shafts, it is invalid.
"Male" arrow shafts are plain shafts, with no receptacle. Since there is no receptacle, they are not susceptible to impurity. Therefore, they may be used as skhakh.
"Female" arrow shafts have a receptacle for the arrowhead. Therefore they may not be used as skhakh.
זכרים כשרה, פשיטא! – מהו דתימא: ניגזור זכרים אטו נקבות, קא משמע לן.
With male arrow-shafts it is valid ; but is not this obvious? I might have said that these should be forbidden on account of female ones, therefore he teaches us [that they are not forbidden].
The Talmud raises the difficulty that it is obvious that male arrow shafts can be used, since they are not receptive to impurity. Why then would Rav Judah need to state an obvious halakhah? The answer is that we might have thought that it would be prohibited to use any arrow shaft, lest one come to use a female one. Therefore, he needed to state that it is permitted.
(אמר מר) בנקבות פסולה, פשיטא!
מהו דתימא: בית קבול העשוי למלאות לא שמיה קבול, קמשמע לן.
With female shafts, it is invalid , is not this obvious? I might have said that a receptacle which is made to be [permanently] filled up is not regarded as a receptacle, therefore he informs us [that it is].
The same difficulty is raised with regard to female shafts isn’t it obvious that they cannot be used as skhakh? The Talmud answers that we might have thought that since the receptacle of the female arrow shaft is meant to be permanently filled by the arrowhead, we might have thought that it doesn’t count as a receptacle and this type of arrow shaft would not be susceptible to impurity. Therefore, Rav Judah teaches us that they are susceptible to impurity and cannot be used for skhakh.