meta: {"file": "/data/tomer/Sefaria-Export/txt_done/Mishnah/Seder Moed/Mishnah Sukkah/English/Open Mishnah.txt"}
text: Mishnah Sukkah
  משנה סוכה
  Open Mishnah
  
  
  Mishnah Sukkah
  
  
  
  
  
  A sukkah taller than twenty cubits is invalid. Rabbi Yehudah validates it. And one which is not ten hand-breadths tall, or does not contain three walls, or whose whose [area of] sun is greater than its shade is invalid. Regarding an old sukkah, Beit Shammai invalidate it, and Beit Hillel validate it. What is an old sukkah? Any [sukkah] which one made it thirty days before the festival. But if one made it for the sake of the festival, even [if he made it] from the beginning of the year, it is valid.
  One who makes his sukkah beneath a tree, it is as though he made it inside a house [and is thus invalid]. Regarding a sukkah on top of a sukkah, the top one is valid, and the bottom one invalid. Rabbi Yehudah says: if there is no lodging in the top one, the bottom one is valid.
  If one spread a sheet over it because of the sun, or beneath it because of the falling leaves, or if one spread [a sheet] over a four-poster [bed, within a sukkah], it is invalid. However, one may spread over a two-poster bed.
  If one raised a grapevine, a gourd, or an ivy upon it, and placed the <i>sekhakh</i> [the leafy roof covering of a sukkah] on top of it, it is invalid. But if there was a greater amount of <i>sekhakh</i> than them, or if one trimmed them [the plants, such that they were not longer attached], it is valid. This is the rule: anything that can be rendered impure or does not grow from the ground cannot be used for <i>sekhakh</i>; and anything that cannot be rendered impure and that grows from the ground can be used for <i>sekhakh</i>.
  Bundles of straw, bundles of wood, or bundles of shoots may not be used for <i>sekhakh</i>. And all of them, if they are untied [from their bundles], are valid. And they are all valid for use as walls [of a sukkah].
  One may use [wooden] planks for <i>sekhakh</i>, according to Rabbi Yehudah. And Rabbi Meir forbids it. If one placed a plank four hand-breadths wide on top [of his sukkah], it is valid, as long as one does not sleep directly beneath it.
  Regarding a ceiling [of planks] that has no plaster on it, Rabbi Yehudah says: Beit Shamai say: one should loosen [the planks], and remove one from between every two [in order to make it a valid sukkah]. And Beit Hillel say: one should either loosen, or remove one from between every two. Rabbi Meir says: one should remove one from between every two, and not loosen them [i.e. loosening does not help].
  One who covers the top of his sukkah with spits or bed slats, if there is space between them as wide as they are [and that space is then filled with valid <i>sekhakh</i>], it is valid. If one digs out a haystack to make a sukkah in it, it is not a [valid] sukkah.
  If [in constructing one's sukkah] one lowers the walls from the top down, if it [the wall] remains three hand-breaths above the ground, it is invalid. If [one raises the walls] from the bottom up, if it rises ten hand-breadths above the ground, it is valid [regardless of any gap between it and the <i>sekhakh</i>]. Rabbi Yose says: just as [a wall built] from the bottom up is [valid provided it has a height of] ten hand-breadths, so too [a wall built] from the top down is [valid provided it has a height of] ten hand-breadths. If one distanced the <i>sekhakh</i> material three hand-breadths from the wall [leaving a gap of at least that size], it is invalid. 
  Regarding a house that [its roof] was breached and one put <i>sekhakh</i> on top [of the breach], if there are four cubits [of empty space or solid ceiling] between the wall and the sekhakh, it is invalid. And similarly regarding a courtyard surrounded by a colonnade, [if one covered the empty space above it, but there is a gap of three hand-breadths between the <i>sekhakh</i> and the walls, it is invalid]. Regarding a large sukkah which [its <i>sekhakh</i>] was surrounded by material that may not be used for <i>sekhakh</i>, if there is an area four cubits wide beneath it [the invalid material], it is invalid.
  If one makes his sukkah like a shed [i.e. with a sloping roof that meets at a line], or leaned it against a wall, Rabbi Eliezer invalidates [both] because it has no roof, and the Sages validate [them]. Regarding a large reed mat, if one made it for lying upon, it may be rendered impure and it cannot be used as <i>sekhakh</i>; if [one made it] for use as <i>sekhakh</i>, it may be used as <i>sekhakh</i> and it cannot be rendered impure. Rabbi Eliezer says: whether it is small or large, if one made it for lying upon, it may be rendered impure and it cannot be used as <i>sekhakh</i>; if [one made it] for use as <i>sekhakh</i>, it may be used as <i>sekhakh</i> and it cannot be rendered impure.