daf bit: Sukkah 17

[cellio]

A mishna teaches that a sukkah is invalid if there is a gap of three handbreadths between the covering (s'chach) and the walls. It then goes on to talk about a house whose roof has been breached in the center; if you place a cover over the breach is that a valid sukkah? The mishna rules that if there are no more than four cubits from the wall to the opening and (new) covering it is valid, but for a larger distance it is not. Similarly, in a courtyard surrounded by a wall that has a partial roof extending from it (a peristyle), you can make a sukkah so long as the distance to the wall is no more than four cubits. (In either of these latter cases, of course, you must be careful to sit under the temporary covering, not under these bits of roof or roof-like extension.) This difference -- three handbreaths of airspace invalidates but four cubits of roof don't? -- prompts much discussion in the g'mara, which interprets the latter as extensions of the wall ("curved walls"). (17a)

Note that we're talking here about building alongside things that have overhangs or other horizontal extensions. This is different from building under an overhang or a tree, which I understand to always be invalid (like the "tent" problem in the canopied bed that I talked about last week). I have to take this problem into account when setting up my sukkah on the patio next to the garage (which has such overhangs).

Comments

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

… I think I need a diagram.