Daf Yomi - Sukkah 4 - Highlights

1. If a Sukkah is higher than twenty amos and one attempts to reduce its height by placing pillows on the ground, it is not a valid reduction, and the Sukkah is still viewed to be higher than twenty amos. The reason for this ruling is because one will not leave the pillows on the floor of the Sukkah for all seven days of the festival, as they will become ruined. If, however, he spreads straw on the floor of the Sukkah and verbally abandoned it there for seven days, or if he spread dirt on the Sukkah and verbally abandoned it there, this is considered a valid reduction in the height of the Sukkah. (3b3-4a1)


...Highlights of the Daf

2. If one spread straw on the floor of the Sukkah and he does not intend to remove it in the future, or if he spread dirt on the Sukkah floor without any specific intention, there is a Tanaaic debate. When the straw and dirt are verbally abandoned, the Tanna of the Mishnah and Rabbi Yose agree that they are nullified vis-à-vis their location. When there is no verbal indication, yet, the owner has no need for them, and regarding dirt where we are not aware of the owner’s needs, according to Rabbi Yose the straw and dirt are nullified, whereas the Tanna of the Mishnah maintains that they are not nullified. Regarding straw where there is no verbal indication and we are unaware of the owner’s needs and regarding dirt or straw where we know that the owner has an immediate need for them, everyone agrees that the straw and the dirt are not nullified. (4a1)
3. If a Sukkah is higher than twenty amos and some of the leaves from the schach hang down into the airspace of the Sukkah within twenty amos of the floor, if the shade from the leaves’ tips is greater than their sunlight, the Sukkah is valid, but if their shade is not greater than their sunlight, the Sukkah remains invalid. (4a2)
4. If the sukkah is exactly ten tefachim and some of the leaves from the s’chach were dangling within the ten-tefachim airspace and their sunlight is greater than their shade, there is a dispute if the Sukkah is valid or not. (4a2)
5. If a sukkah is higher than twenty amos and a platform is built in the Sukkah that abuts all three walls of the sukkah, since the airspace between the platform and the s’chach does not exceed twenty amos, the Sukkah will be valid. If the platform is built on the side of the Sukkah, if from the edge of the platform until the opposite wall is a distance of less than four amos, the Sukkah is valid. The reason for this ruling is because we apply the principle of dofen akumah, i.e. we say that an invalid covering can be viewed as part of a bent wall. The novelty of this ruling is that even though the third wall cannot be used as a wall of the Sukkah because it is higher than twenty amos and does not abut the platform, we still apply the principle of dofen akumah and even the third wall qualifies as a valid Sukkah wall. The principle of dofen akumah applies even when the platform does not abut any walls but the distance from the edge of the platform until the wall is less than four amos. (4a2-4a3)
6. If a Sukkah is less than ten tefachim high and one dug a pit in the middle of the floor so that the Sukkah is completed to a depth of ten tefachim, the Sukkah will be valid if there is less than three tefachim between the edge of the pit and the Sukkah wall. (4a4-4b1)
7. If a Sukkah is higher than twenty amos and one builds in the middle of the Sukkah a pillar that is ten tefachim tall and wider than seven squared tefachim, Abaye maintains that the Sukkah is valid because we apply the principle of gud asik, i.e. we extend and raise the partition on each of the pillar’s sides to the s’chach above, creating a valid Sukkah on the top of the pillar. Rava disagrees because he maintains that we need the walls of the Sukkah to be recognizable, and here there are no recognizable walls. (4b1)
8. If one built a Sukkah by driving four poles into the roof of a house and he placed s’chach across the poles, there is a debate if the Sukkah is valid or not. (4b1-4b2)