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סוכה 21:1
Soncino English Talmud · Berean Standard Bible
— He deduces it from the word ‘tent’ [common to this and to] the Tabernacle. It is written here, This is the law, when a man dieth in the tent, and it is written there, And he spread the tent over the tabernacle. As there [‘tent’ means one] made by the hands of man, so here [it means one made] by the hands of man. And the Rabbis? — The word ‘tent’ occurs many times, to include [all tents]. Is then R. Judah of the opinion that a tent which is not made by the hand of man is no valid tent? Let us point out an incongruity: [We have learnt] Courtyards were built in Jerusalem over a rock, and beneath them was a hollow [made] because of [the fear of] a grave in the depths, and they used to bring there pregnant women, and there they gave birth to their children and there they reared them for [the service of the Red] Heifer. And they brought oxen, upon whose back were placed doors, and the children sat upon them with stone cups in their hands. When they reached Siloam they went down into the water and filled them, then ascended and sat again [on the doors]. R. Jose said, [Each child] used to let [his cup] down and fill it from his place because of [the fear of] a grave in the depths; and it has been taught, R. Judah said, They did not bring doors, but oxen. Now oxen, surely, are a ‘tent’ which is not made by the hands of man, and does it not nevertheless teach, R. Judah said, They did not bring doors, but oxen?-When R. Dimi came, he said in the name of R. Eleazar, R. Judah agrees in, the case [of a ‘tent’ that is as large as] a fistful. So it has also been taught: R. Judah admits in the case of overhanging crags and clefts of rocks. But a door, surely, has an altitude of many fistfuls and yet R. Judah teaches, does he not, ‘They did not bring doors but oxen’? — Abaye replied, [It means that] they did not need to bring doors. Raba said, [It means that] they did not bring doors at all because the child, feeling confident, might put out his head or one of his limbs and thus contract uncleanliness
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