Sukkah, Daf Yod, Part 6
Today’s section is a side discussion connected to someone who is sleeping in a canopied bed.
אמר רב תחליפא בר אבימי אמר שמואל: הישן בכילה ערום – מוציא ראשו חוץ לכילה וקורא קריאת שמע.
R. Tahlifa b. Avimi said in the name of Shmuel: He who sleeps naked in a canopied bed, may put his head out of the canopied bed and read the Shema.
One is not allowed to read the Shema while naked. So if one is sleeping naked in a canopied bed he can stick his head out of the canopy and read the Shema. The canopy counts as his clothing.
מיתיבי: הישן בכילה ערום לא יוציא ראשו חוץ לכילה ויקרא קריאת שמע!
It was objected: He who sleeps in a canopied bed naked may not put his head out of it and read the Shema?
The Talmud raises a difficulty from a baraita that states the exact opposite. One is not allowed to simply put his head out of the canopy and say the Shema.
הכא במאי עסקינן כשגבוהה עשרה. הכי נמי מסתברא, מדקתני סיפא: הא למה זה דומה – לעומד בבית ערום, שלא יוציא ראשו חוץ לחלון ויקרא קריאת שמע. שמע מינה.
The latter refers to a case where [the canopy] was ten [handbreadths] high.
This stands to reason also, since it was stated in the final clause: To what can it be compared? To a man standing naked in a house, in which case he may not put his head out of the window and read the Shema . Learn from this.
Similar to yesterday’s section, here too the Talmud resolves the difficulty by stating that the baraita refers to a case where the canopy is ten handbreadths high. Such a canopy counts as a structure and not as something similar to clothing. This is also proven by the comparison the end of the baraita makes to a house. One couldn’t count the house as his clothes. So too if the canopy is large enough, it doesn’t count as clothes.