Sukkah 017

1:
Our mishnah consists of two clauses. While the first seems readily comprehensible at first glance, the second clause seems to be some kind of conundrum. But, once we understand the 'shorthand' of the sages it will become quite clear.

2:
The first clause of our mishnah is concerned with travel during Sukkot. Travelling from place to place in ancient times quite often took many days. A fast ship with a good back wind could make the journey from Alexandria in Egypt to Ostia, the port of Rome, in about 25 days. (Today, an airplane will make the journey from Cairo — further south than Alexandria — to Rome in about 2.5 hours.) The journey by road from Rome to Jerusalem would have taken many weeks! (The Roman army, on a forced march, covered about 40 kilometres each day: it would have taken more than 2 days to make the journey from Tiberias to Jerusalem.)

3:
It follows that, unlike most observant Jews today, people such as the sages could well find themselves mid-journey to foreign parts when a festival occurs. So, if I am on board a ship, halfway across the Mediterranean Sea, what do I do when the festival of Sukkot arrives? What do I do if I am en route from Eretz-Israel to visit relatives in Babylon (Iraq)?

4:
Case 1:
Rabbi Shemu'el undertakes to deliver an urgent message from the sages in Tzippori (Sepphoris) to Rabbi Akiva in Lod (Lydda). His journey will take him from the highlands of Galilee to the plain of Judah. Travelling by donkey and cart it will probably take him 5 days. But one of those days is the first day of Sukkot and the message of the sages is urgent. What does Rabbi Shemu'el do at the approach of Sukkot? He builds his sukkah on top of his cart!

Case 2:
Rabbi Akiva and Rabban Gamli'el once found themselves at sea during Sukkot. (They were on an urgent mission to the government in Rome.) Can they erect their sukkah on board the ship? Is it a valid sukkah?

5:
The answers of our mishnah to these questions are yes and yes! While there are provisos in general it is possible to erect a sukkah under these circumstances. The cart, of course, must be stationary during YomTov, because travel is forbidden; but even though travelling with the cart is forbidden it is permitted to build a sukkah on the stationary cart. And, of course, during Ḥol ha-Mo'ed (the work days of the festival) it is permitted to travel with the cart with its sukkah on top. When aboard ship the sukkah must be sturdy enough to withstand a breeze. However, the sages were aware that at sea the winds are likely to be much stronger than on land, so they decreed that as long as the sukkah was sturdy enough to withstand a breeze on land it can be used at sea. (The assumption is that we are passengers aboard a ship that is being sailed by non-Jews for the benefit of non-Jews and our presence on board is purely fortuitous: as far as the crew is concerned we are just paying passengers.)

6:
However, the situation is different regarding someone who has built his sukkah up a tree or on top of a camel. The very idea has probably raised not a few eyebrows! But this must have been more than just a rare possibility. Our travellers from Eretz-Israel to Babylon may well be travelling by camel; someone caught out on the road at the onset of Sukkot might well feel much safer if he spends the night up a tree. (Remember that Eretz-Israel in those days still had some animals living wild: lions, bears and so forth. And probably the most dangerous of all animals for the lone traveller was the human animal!)

7:
The difference between the cart and the ship on the one hand and the camel and the tree on the other is that it is forbidden to use the latter on YomTov. Apart from the general prohibition of active travel on Shabbat and YomTov there is the added prohibition of not trapping an animal. Any animal that is under human control is considered trapped. So an observant traveller cannot climb on his camel on YomTov, even if that is where his sukkah is and even if the sukkah is a valid one from all other points of view. Similarly, the sages forbade the climbing of trees on Shabbat and YomTov. So even if your valid sukkah is at the top of a tree you can't use it on YomTov. (Both the sukkah on the camel and the sukkah up a tree may be used, of course, during Ḥol ha-Mo'ed.)

8:
The curious (and the incredulous) among us may well ask how it is possible for someone to build a sukkah on top of a camel. That is because we are used to thinking of these huts in a certain way. But, actually, the sages demanded minimally that one's sukkah be big enough to house one's head and torso. In sukkah 004 I wrote:

There were sages, indeed, who held that a sukkah could be smaller provided that it could house most of a person's head and body — even if the table from which he ate had to be outside.

We shall return to the question of a mini-sukkah when we reach mishnah 7 of this chapter.

To be continued.