Sukkah 012

1:
Our mishnah is concerned with the manner in which the sukkah is erected. You will recall that there are two basic requirements concerning the validity of a sukkah: it should have at least two and one half panels or walls and the thatch of the roofing must be from something that grew in the ground and is now detached from the ground. (There are other considerations, but they are not basic considerations.)

2:
Our present mishnah consists of two clauses. Both clauses are concerned with the manner in which the panels of the sukkah are connected to the s^ekhakh.

3:
We must be careful in understanding our mishnah. It is not concerned with the order in which the basic requirements are brought together but with the physical relationship between them. The first possibility discussed is a situation in which there is a gap between the bottom of the panels and the ground. If this gap is less than three handbreadths high the gap is considered small enough to be inconsequential. It is considered to be as if it were joined (lavud) to the ground. (We have already noted that three handbreadths is about 25 centimetres — say 10 inches.) Obviously, a gap between the bottom of the panel and the ground that is greater than three handbreadths invalidates the sukkah.

4:
The next possibility is that the panel reaches to the ground but does not reach the top of the sukkah, where the s^ekhakh will be laid. Tanna Kamma says that provided the height of the panel is at least ten handbreadths (80 centimetres, say 30 inches) it does not matter that the top of the panel does not reach as far as the thatching.

5:
Rabbi Yosé disagrees with Tanna Kamma. He holds that provided the panel is at least ten handbreadths high it matters not whether it is joined to the top of the sukkah or to the ground or neither. The opinion of Rabbi Yosé is not accepted.

6:
The requirement that the gap not be greater than three handbreadths (from the ground) is measured by the size of a hole that would permit a kid (i.e. a young goat!) to push its way into the sukkah with little trouble. [Sukkah 14b.]

7:
The seifa of our mishnah is also concerned with a gap. However, we must again be very careful in understanding what the sages are saying. When they say, in our mishnah, that a gap of three handbreadths between the s^ekhakh and the panels invalidates the sukkah they are not looking at the issue vertically, but horizontally. If the s^ekhakh is laid in such a manner that there is an unfilled gap of three handbreadths or more between its edges and even just one of the panels that gap invalidates the sukkah even if the s^ekhakh and the panels are all valid.

Our discussion concerning the s^ekhakh prompts