daf bit: Sukkah 10

[cellio]

A mishna on today's daf teaches: if one spreads a sheet over the roof of his sukkah because of the sun, or under it because of falling leaves, or if he spreads a sheet over the frame of a four-poster bed (in the sukkah), the sukkah is invalid. The g'mara picks up on the phrase "because of falling leaves" and argues that, because we are given a reason, then a sheet used to beautify the sukkah is not being used for that reason and so it's valid. So you can't put up a sheet to block falling leaves, but you can put up a beautiful sheet to decorate your sukkah and if it happens to block falling leaves, that's different. (10a)

However, note that this isn't the current practice, at least as it has been taught to me: you can't have a barrier between the roof of the sukkah, which must be made of things that once grew from the ground (wood, bamboo, evergreen cuttings, etc) and you -- no tents, sheets, umbrellas, tarps, etc. So this is what the g'mara says here, but (a) it may say other things elsewhere and (b) the g'mara isn't necessarily the last word on anything.

Comments

[siderea]

Wait. Linen, cotton, and hemp, all grow out of the ground and have been used for textiles for millennia. What's wrong with making a beautiful fabric sukkah-top from plant fiber? Doesn't that have adequate plausible deniability?

(Bamboo also makes a glorious textile, but I think it's modern discovery.)

ETA: Does this mean a sukkah can have a thatched roof?