Sukkah, Daf Yod, Part 5

 

Introduction

Today’s section discusses a person who sleeps in a sukkah but in a bed with some sort of netting on top. The question is: does this netting form a barrier between him and the skhakh such that he hasn’t fulfilled his obligation.

 

אמר רב יהודה אמר שמואל: מותר לישן בכילה בסוכה, אף על פי שיש לה גג, והוא שאינה גבוהה עשרה.

 

Rav Judah said in the name of Shmuel, It is permissible to sleep in a canopied bed in a Sukkah, even though it has a flat roof, provided it is not ten [handbreadths] high.

 

Rav Judah allows one to sleep in a bed with a canopy that has a flat roof. We might have thought that this flat roof would count as invalid skhakh and would therefore invalidate the sukkah. The one caveat is that the canopy must be less than ten handbreadths from the bed. If it is more than ten handbreadths then it would form a barrier to the skhakh and one who sleeps there would not have fulfilled his obligation.

 

תא שמע: הישן בכילה בסוכה – לא יצא ידי חובתו!

 

Come and hear: He who sleeps in a canopied bed in a Sukkah has not fulfilled his obligation?

 

The Talmud now cites a baraita that directly contradicts Rav Judah. This baraita clearly states that if one sleeps in a sukkah with a canopied bed he has not fulfilled his obligation.

 

הכא במאי עסקינן – כשגבוהה עשרה.

 

Here we are dealing with a case of one that was ten [handbreadths] high.

 

The Talmud resolves that this baraita was disqualifying a case where the canopy was more than ten handbreadths from the bed.

 

מיתיבי: הישן תחת המטה בסוכה לא יצא ידי חובתו!

 

It was objected: He who sleeps under the bed in a Sukkah has not fulfilled his obligation?

 

The Talmud has a new objection, again from a tannaitic source, this time a mishnah. The mishnah rules that one who sleeps under a bed inside the sukkah has not fulfilled his obligation. The same should be so for one who sleeps under the canopy in a sukkah the canopy blocks the skhakh and he has not fulfilled his obligation.

 

הא תרגמה שמואל במטה גבוהה עשרה.

 

But, surely, Samuel has explained that [this refers to] a bed ten [handbreadths] high.

 

The resolution to this difficulty is brought from a different statement of Shmuel. The person sleeping under the bed has not fulfilled his obligation only if the bed is more than ten handbreadths high. Such a bed forms a barrier to the valid skhakh. But if the bed is less than ten handbreadths high, one can sleep under it. The same is true with the canopied bed.

תא שמע: או שפירס על גבי קינופות – פסולה!

 

Come and hear: or if he spread [a sheet] over the frame of a four-post bed, [the sukkah] is invalid?

 

A third difficulty is raised. If one spreads a canopy over a four-post bed, the sukkah is invalidated.

 

התם נמי דגביהי עשרה.

 

There also it is a case where they are ten [handbreadths] high.

 

The same resolution is brought yet again. The mishnah rules that this is invalid only if it is higher than ten handbreadths. In all cases, if the barrier is lower than ten handbreadths one can sleep there.

 

והא לא קתני הכי, דתניא: נקליטין שנים, וקינופות ארבעה. פירס על גבי קינופות – פסולה, על גבי נקליטין – כשרה, ובלבד שלא יהיו נקליטין גבוהין מן המטה עשרה. מכלל דקינופות, אף על פי שאין גבוהין עשרה!

But surely, it was not taught in this way, for it has been taught: Naklitin [means a frame with] two [poles], and kinofot [means a frame with] four [poles];

If one spread a sheet over the frame of kinofot it is invalid, if over naklitin, it is valid, provided that the naklitin are not ten [handbreadths] high above the bed.

This implies that kinofot [are invalid] even if they are less than ten [handbreadths high]?

 

The Talmud now rejects the previous resolution. There are two types of canopied beds one’s with two posts, one at each end, and one’s with four posts, one on each corner. If one spreads a canopy over a two-posted bed, the sukkah remains valid because this doesn’t form a roof. But this is true only if the naklitin are less than ten handbreadths high. If they are higher, the sukkah is in any case invalid. The baraita also states that one cannot sleep under a four-post canopy. There is no caveat about 10 handbreadths. The implication is that one can never sleep in a four-posted canopied bed, even if it is less than ten handbreadths high. This contradicts R. Judah.

 

שאני קינופות, דקביעי.

Kinofoth are different, since they are permanent.

 

Kinofot are permanently fixed into the bed. Therefore, even if they are lower than ten handbreadths, one cannot sleep under them in a sukkah.

However, if the canopy is not fixed into the bed, one can sleep under it, as long as it is not ten handbreadths high. In other words, only permanent structures are always invalid.

והרי סוכה על גבי סוכה דקביעא, ואמר שמואל: כהכשרה כך פסולה!

But, behold the case of one Sukkah above another, which is also permanent; and Shmuel nevertheless said, As its validity so is its invalidity ?

 

This is a case we had above on daf tet. If one sukkah is above another sukkah the bottom one is invalid, but only if the top sukkah is ten handbreadths high, according to Shmuel. This proves that Shmuel says that even for a permanent structure (at least as permanent as a sukkah might be) the bottom one is valid if the top one is not ten handbreadths high.

 

אמרי: התם דלמפסל סוכה – בעשרה, הכא דלשויי אוהלא – בציר מעשרה נמי הוי אוהלא.

 

They said: In the latter case, [when it is a question] of invalidating a Sukkah, [the upper one must be ten [handbreadths] high, but here, [where it is a question] of making a tent, even less than ten [handbreadths suffices] also to constitute a tent.

 

The Talmud now resolves the difficulty. In the case of the sukkah on top of the sukkah, we had one sukkah invalidating another sukkah. So for that to happen, the top one had to be ten handbreadths high. But in the case of the four post canopy bed, the canopy doesn’t make a sukkah because it is invalid as skhakh. The canopy just forms a tent that would act as a barrier. So even if it is less than ten handbreadths high, the sukkah is invalidated.