B”H 

Sukkah 16a

6 Shvat 5781 January 19, 2021

Some brief notes:

1- We continued on the topics of last week. 

The Torah states, for example, that to create a רשות היחיד we need three walls. Its simple meaning is that these three walls should be solid walls  – with no gaps or holes. 

However, if most of these walls are solid and only a minority of the length are holes and gaps, it is still OK.  We follow the רוב. 

What about 50-50? 

The question is whether the Torah states that ‘most of the walls should be solid’.  Thus 50-50 would not work. 

Or perhaps the Torah meant to say that these walls should not be mostly gaps, thus 50-50 would work. 

Ditto with a Sukkah. 50% kosher Schach and 50% non kosher. 

2- Speaking of a 50-50 a situation that it is not a רוב but neither is it  a מיעוט, we mentioned the Minhag of Chabad and others of wearing (at least during davening) a jacket that buttons right on left. See here. 

Reb Moshe Feinstein exiting the Rebbe’s room. The Rebbe can be seen getting up in his honor. Rabbi Groner is helping him with his coat. Note Reb Moshe’s kapote that is right on left. 

Humorously, we asked  if one wears a jacket that zippers up? It’s not right on left all right . But….neither is it left on right …..

3- Our Gemore discusses using סכך from something that originally was פסול but ‘became’ kosher. Such as parts of pottery. Or food. In their original state both are פסול since they are מקבל טומאה. 

However when they are broken or fragmented, they are no longer מקבל טומאה. 

The Halachah is that one cannot use these items since at one point they were unfit for סכך. 

4- We mentioned the ערוך לנר that connect this to the concept of דיחוי. That is an issue that is found in dozens of places in Sha”s. 

One  example of דיחוי is if there are Kohanim standing on line to spray blood on the מזבח and something happens to the structure of the  מזבח making it פסול. The Kohanim stop their movements.

Now, if the מזבח is immediately repaired, is there an issue with the Kohanim continuing their עבודה  since there was a time from the start of this particular עבודה there was no מזבח?

This blood was נדחה. Or ‘pushed away’ and perhaps cannot be ‘brought back’. 

We will have more on this on 33b in the case of the הדס that has too many berries making it פסול. What if Yom Tov morning these berries fell off. Do we say that once the הדס  is פסול, it cannot be ‘brought back’. 

5- Our Gemara speaks about the person that burrows into a pile of hay to create a Sukkah. That is what the Mishnah uses as the classical case of  תעשה ולא מן העשוי. It’s פסול because the סכך was originally placed not for a צל. 

However if there was a hollow space of a טפח when this pile was created, since the hay was placed on top of an empty space, it is considered a ‘cover’. So enlarging this space to 10 טפחים high would be OK. 

6- From here we went to a topic that surprisingly is not mentioned in the Gemara of even ראשונים. 

That is – can the סכך be placed before proper walls are put up. Like a pop-up Sukkah that the frame is erected first. Now, if one was to place the Schach on the frame prior to attaching the canvas walls would that be OK?

The first one to mention this is the הגהת מיימונית and is brought down by the Ramo. See here. OC 635 end of Seif 1. See מגן אברהם and the ט”ז there.