Sukkah 015

1:
There is a logical progression in the way that our tractate is arranged. The mitzvah of residing in the sukkah begins the moment the festival begins, therefore the sukkah must be ready before the onset of the festival. That is why the first chapter of this tractate was concerned with the erection of a sukkah. In this second chapter we now shall deal with the mitzvah of residing in the sukkah: what does this entail?

2:
The mitzvah of sukkah is clearly defined in the Torah [Leviticus 23:42-43]

The content of this second chapter of our tractate is directed towards defining what we mean by 'residing' in the sukkah. The last mishnah of this chapter summarizes the mitzvah of 'residing' in the sukkah:

3:
Strictly speaking, this means that all things that we would usually do at home we must do in the sukkah during the festival: taking our meals, reading the newspaper, entertaining guests, studying Torah, sleeping at night, resting during the day and so forth. For the sages the defining element of this mitzvah seems to have been sleeping in the sukkah at night.

4:
Our present mishnah is concerned with the requirement to sleep in the sukkah. We have already learned in the first chapter that nothing must separate the person in the sukkah from the s^ekhakh which is the essential roofing of the sukkah. We also learned that there was plenty of room for people to lie underneath a bed. During the period of the sages (and long afterwards) many people would share the same bed, even strangers in a hotel or wayside inn! When many people needed to sleep in the same sukkah space would have been at a premium.

5:
Our mishnah consists of four elements:

1. a general ruling, enunciated by Tanna Kamma;
2. a challenge to that ruling by Rabbi Yehudah;
3. a refutation of Rabbi Yehudah's challenge quoting an earlier authority;
4. a reinforcement of the general ruling.

6:
Tanna Kamma states what we already know to be the case:

of 'residing' in the sukkah. The reason for this is, as explained above, that the bed would constitute a barrier between anyone underneath it and the s^ekhakh of the sukkah. Rabbi Yehudah [bar-Ilai] challenges this ruling from personal experience: "we used to sleep under the bed in the presence of the elders and they said nothing!" The 'elders' here are, of course, the sages of the previous generation.

7:
The Gemara [Sukkah 20b] explains the difference between Tanna Kamma and Rabbi Yehudah: Rabbi Yehudah holds that the bed is 'temporary' and therefore does not impede between the sleeper and the s^ekhakh; the sages disagree because, as we have noted, a high bed could hardly be considered 'temporary'. However, they do agree that if the bed is lower than ten handbreadths the opinion of Rabbi Yehudah would be valid.

8:
Rabbi Shim'on [ben-Yoḥai], a contemporary of Rabbi Yehudah, counters his claim about the elders by quoting one of the greatest sages of the previous generation. Rabban Gamli'el had a Cana'anite servant named Tavi. A Cana'anite servant was a non-Jew who had entered the service of a Jew. At the end of one year the servant either had to be passed on to another non-Jew or had to consent to convert to Judaism. If the servant – voluntarily – opted for conversion he was excused the performance of certain mitzvot as we shall see.

9:
Tavi, now a learned Jew even though a Cana'anite servant, knew that he was excused the mitzvah of residing in the sukkah, so he slept under the bed. (The Cana'anite servant was excused all positive — "thou shalt" — commands that apply only to a certain time; residing in a sukkah applies only during the festival). Rabban Gamli'el brags about his servant's mastery of halakhah – possibly because he himself had taught Tavi about Judaism.

10:
In conclusion, Tanna Kamma explains that even though what Rabban Gamli'el said was obviously just part of an ordinary conversation it nevertheless clearly indicates that someone who sleeps underneath the bed is not fulfilling the requirement of sleeping in the sukkah.

In sukkah 013 we learned about a house whose roof collapsed and was turned into a sukkah by placing s^ekhakh over the hole in the roof. Yonatan Levin writes:

In the case of a building whose roof has fallen in and there are less than four cubits between the wall and the s^ekhakh, are people who sit underneath the 'bent panels' fulfilling the mitzvah of sukkah?

I respond:

No. What the mishnah means is that if there is an open space between the s^ekhakh and the wall that is less than 2 metres wide it does not invalidate the whole sukkah, but the mitzvah of residing in the sukkah can only be fulfilled underneath that part of the sukkah which has valid s^ekhakh. (If the s^ekhakh had reached as far as the 'bent panels' it would be permitted to sit under the panel.)