Sukkah

— He deduces it from the word ‘tent’ [common to this1 and to] the Tabernacle. It is written here, This is the law, when a man dieth in the tent,2 and it is written there, And he spread the tent over the tabernacle.3 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?4 — The word ‘tent’ occurs many times,5 to include [all tents].6 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,7 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.8 And9 they brought oxen, upon whose back were placed doors, and the children sat upon them with stone cups10 in their hands. When they reached Siloam11 they went down into the water and filled them, then ascended and sat again [on the doors].12 R. Jose said, [Each child] used to let [his cup] down and fill it from his place13 because of [the fear of] a grave in the depths;14 and it has been taught, R. Judah said, They did not bring doors, but oxen.15 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,16 he said in the name of R. Eleazar, R. Judah agrees17 in, the case [of a ‘tent’ that is as large as] a fistful. 18 So it has also been taught: R. Judah admits in the case of overhanging crags and clefts of rocks.19 But a door, surely, has20 an altitude of many fistfuls and yet R. Judah teaches, does he not, ‘They did not bring doors but oxen’?21 — Abaye replied, [It means that] they did not need to bring doors.22 Raba said, [It means that] they did not bring doors at all because the child, feeling confident,23 might put out his head or one of his limbs and thus contract uncleanliness of one handbreadth above it the uncleanness of the grave penetrates through the rock and beyond it. with it were, therefore, of stone or earthenware which are not susceptible to ritual uncleanliness, and, according to the above Mishnah, the children whose duty it was to bring the officiating priest the water for the sin-offering were kept free from contamination from pre-natal days until they were seven or eight years of age (Rashi, — Tosefta says, twelve). Hence the precautions mentioned above. above. Tosef. Parah III, 2 with variants. height. body of an ox be regarded as a valid one?