Sukkah

except where its area was not bigger than two beth se'ah?1 — The reason2 is that it3 is an abode made to serve the open air4 and in every abode that is made to serve the open air4 objects may be moved in it5 only if its area is no more than two beth se'ah.6 Come and hear: If one made his Sabbath rest7 in a mound which is ten [handbreadths] high and [whose extent] is from four cubits to two beth se'ah and so also with a cavity8 which is ten [handbreadths] deep, and [whose extent] is from four cubits to two beth se'ah and so also with a harvested spot9 that was surrounded by ears of corn, he may walk throughout its whole extent and two thousand cubits10 outside it [on the Sabbath].11 [Now is not this permitted] even although it12 sways to and fro?13 — There also it refers to where he plaited it 12 with shrubs and bay-trees.14 MISHNAH. THOSE WHO ARE ENGAGED ON A RELIGIOUS ERRAND15 ARE FREE FROM [THE OBLIGATIONS OF] SUKKAH.16 INVALIDS AND THEIR ATTENDANTS ARE FREE FROM [THE OBLIGATIONS OF] SUKKAH. CASUAL EATING AND DRINKING17 ARE PERMITTED OUTSIDE THE SUKKAH. GEMARA. Whence do we know this?18 — From what our Rabbis taught: When thou sittest in thy house19 excludes20 the man who is occupied with a religious duty,21 And when thou walkest by the way19 excludes a bridegroom.20 Hence21 they22 said, He who marries a virgin is free [from the obligation of reading the Shema’], but [he who marries] a widow is bound [by the obligation].23 How is this24 inferred? — R. Huna said, It is compared to ‘the way’19 just as ‘the way’25 refers to a secular way,26 so must every act27 be secular, thus excluding such a man who is occupied with the performance of a religious duty. But does it28 not refer to where one is going on a religious errand [also]?29 And does not the Divine Law nevertheless say that one should read?30 — If so,31 the verse should have said, ‘When sitting and when walking’;32 why [then does it say,] ‘When thou sittest and when thou walkest’? [It must consequently mean:] When walking for thy own purpose thou art bound by the obligation, but when walking on a religious errand thou art free. If so,33 should not even the man who marries a widow34 also be exempt?-When he marries a virgin his mind is pre-occupied35 but when he marries a widow his mind is not preoccupied.36 Does this mean that whenever a man's mind is pre-occupied he is exempt?37 If so, if his ship was sunk, so that his mind is preoccupied is he also exempt?37 And if you will say, ‘It is indeed so’, did not R. Abba b. Zabda [it may be retorted] say in the name of Rab: A mourner38 is bound by all the commandments that are enumerated in the Torah, with the sole exception of that of tefillin because the word ‘beauty’39 was applied to them? — In the former case40 his pre-occupation is on account of a religious duty;41 in the latter42 it is on account of a secular event.43 But is the law that he who is engaged on one religious duty is free from any other deduced from here?44 Is it not deduced from elsewhere, As it has been taught: And there were certain men who were unclean by the dead body of a man, etc.45 Who were these men? They were those who bore the coffin of Joseph,46 so R. Jose the Galilean. se'ah is estimated as two thousand five hundred square cubits. larger it is subject to the laws of karmelith and objects in it may be moved within four cubits only. rested when the Sabbath began. captive. excluded from the religious duty of mourning which is duly defined. specified reasons, were unable to celebrate the first in Nisan.