Sukkah 005

31:
Later authorities have expanded the halakhic requirements of both the skhakh and the sides; it might be helpful to present here the most salient points.

32:
One compendium of halakhic information that is too often overlooked by Jews who hail from the western hemisphere is Ben Ish Hai. This book was written by Rabbi Yosef Ḥayyim of Baghdad, who died 102 years ago. He writes:

The Gemara [Sukkah 28b] says that these sides can be made from any material that will not collapse or sway too much in a normal breeze. But, of course, such a definition is wide open to interpretation. In his collection of responsa [Yeḥaveh Da'at 3:46] Rabbi Ovadyah Yosef requires solid panels so that there will be no sway at all. This means that sides made from canvas or woven material would render the sukkah invalid. On the other hand Rabbi Avraham Yeshayah Karelitz, who died in 1953, rules differently in his magnum opus, Ḥazon Ish. He permits a slight swaying of the sides in the wind. People who follow his ruling use canvas sheets to form the sides of the sukkah but make sure that they are firmly attached to some kind of framework — and even reinforced with some kind of holding band — so that the sway will be absolutely minimal.

33:
The s^ekhakh must be laid only after the sides have been erected, as already noted in Ben Ish Ḥai. He continues:

This would mean that anything manufactured, even from natural materials, invalidates the s^ekhakh. He also warns that fruit used as decoration in the sukkah must be hung very close to the s^ekhakh, otherwise they too would invalidate the sukkah. Later mishnahs in this chapter will have more to say about the s^ekhakh.

34:
Another classic compendium of halakhah is the Kitzur Shulḥan Arukh of Rabbi Shelomoh Ganzfried [1804-1886]. In section 134:5 of this work he writes:

35:
We now come to the second clause of our mishnah. This concerns when a sukkah may be erected. We recall that the command of the Torah is

This command does not specify when these huts should be erected. Our mishnah demonstrates a difference of opinion [maḥloket] between Bet Shammai and Bet Hillel.

36:
In the last decades BCE and in the first decades CE the leaders of the Sanhedrin were two sages named Hillel and Shammai. You will find a detailed biography of these two sages in our study of Tractate Avot [Avot 051 through 067]. Their students and successors became two schools of thought and tradition within the Pharisaic camp, the House of Hillel [Bet Hillel] and the House of Shammai [Bet Shammai]. Bet Shammai was much more conservative in its interpretation of Jewish law than was Bet Hillel. Apart from a few extraordinary cases the law was generally decided according to the more liberal traditions of Bet Hillel. A very well known passage in the Gemara [Eruvin 13b] sums up the situation:

37:
It is generally accepted that there were several basic considerations that caused and maintained these two camps. There was a difference regarding the liberties that sages could take in interpreting the text of the Torah to create halakhah; as we have said, Bet Shammai was much more conservative. But there were also social and economic differences. Bet Shammai represented the landed classes, who were more financially stable; Bet Hillel represented the urban proletariats and the poorer elements in society. Also we should note that Bet Shammai were very nationalistic, harbouring a deep resentment of the Roman occupying power; Bet Hillel were much more pacific and willing to live in peace with the Romans as far as possible.

38:
In our present mishnah Bet Shammai hold that a sukkah must be erected specifically for the festival of Sukkot; any sukkah erected more than one month before the festival begins is invalid according to Bet Shammai. Bet Hillel are much more lenient: the Torah does not specify when a sukkah is to be erected, it only specifies when it should be used. Therefore a sukkah that was erected even months before the festival would still be valid for use during the festival. (Thus the poor people who used their huts as watchers in the fields of the rich — living scarecrows as it were — could use their sukkah for the ritual purpose of the festival.) Halakhah, of course, follows Bet Hillel.