Mishnat Sukkah

You shall hold the Feast of Sukkot for seven days, when you gather in from your threshing floor and your wine-press.

Ye shall dwell in sukkot seven days; all that are citizens in Israel shall dwell in sukkot.

In order that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in sukkot, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

And there shall be a sukkah for daily shade from the heat, and for a refuge, and for a place of shelter from storm and from rain.

A sukkah which is higher than twenty cubits is invalid. Rabbi Judah says it is kasher.

One which is not ten handbreadths high, or which does not have three walls, or which has more sun than shade, is invalid.

An old sukkah: Bet Shammai invalidates it and Bet Hillel says it is kasher. What is an “old sukkah”? One which was made thirty days before the festival. But if he made it for the purpose of the festival, even at the beginning of the year, it is valid.

HALAKHAH: “A sukkah which is higher than twenty,” etc. Rebbi Yose said it without attribution, Rebbi Aḥa in the name of Rav: The rabbis inferred it from the door of the Sanctuary, but Rebbi Jehudah inferred it from the door of the Hall.

Someone who makes his sukkah under a tree, it is as if he made it within the house. If someone makes a sukkah on top of another sukkah, the upper one is valid but the lower is invalid. Rabbi Judah says: if there are no occupants in the upper one, the lower one is valid.

If he spread a sheet over it because of the sun or beneath it because of falling leaves, or if he spread it over the frame of a four-poster bed, it is invalid.

But he may spread it over the cross-bar of a two-post bed.

If he trained a vine or a gourd or ivy over it and put skhakh on top of it, it is invalid. But if the skhakh is much more than them, or if he cut them, it is kasher.

This is the general rule: whatever is susceptible to impurity or does not grow from the ground may not be used for skhakh. And whatever is not susceptible to impurity and does grow from the ground may be used for skhakh.

Bundles of straw, bundles of wood, and bundles of brushwood cannot be used as skhakh. But all of them are kasher if one untied them. And they are all kasher for walls.

We are concerned in case someone should, in the first instance, put tied-up bundles to dry out or to store before the festival and decide afterwards that he'll just leave them in place to be a sukkah.

This is forbidden for the reason that we've mentioned above, namely that you shall make it rather than use what is already made. That is to say, it isn't made for shade but it's only made to dry out.

Therefore we make him take the trouble of unrolling the bundles so that he has taken an action for the sake of building the sukkah . . .

One may make skhakh out of wooden planks, according to of Rabbi Judah. And Rabbi Meir forbids.

If one places a plank four handbreadths wide on top of it, it is kasher provided that one does not sleep under it.

A roof that has no plastering on top of it. Rabbi Judah says: Bet Shammai say that he should loosen them and remove one from between each two, and Bet Hillel say he should either loosen or remove one from between two.

Rabbi Meir says, he removes one from between two, but he does not loosen.

If someone roofs his sukkah with iron spits or with bedposts, if the space between them equals them, it is kasher.

If someone hollows out a stack of grain to make for himself a sukkah, it is not a sukkah.

If he hangs walls down from above to below, and they are higher than three handbreadths from the ground, it is invalid.

From the bottom to the top, if they are ten handbreadths high, it is kasher.

Rabbi Yose says: just as from the bottom to the top it is ten handbreadths suffice so from the top to the bottom it is ten handbreadths. If he distances the skhakh three handbreadths [sideways] from the walls, it is invalid.

If a house is opened up, and he placed skhakh over it, if there is a distance of four cubits from the wall to the covering, it is invalid.

Similarly in the case of a courtyard which is surrounded by a pergola.

A large sukkah which was surrounded with material which is invalid for skhakh, if there is a space of four cubits beneath it, it is invalid.

Someone who makes his sukkah like a cone-shaped hut or leans it against a wall: Rabbi Eliezer invalidates it since it has no roof, and the sages declare it kasher.

A large reed mat: if made for lying on it is susceptible to impurity and is isn't used as skhakh. If made for a skhakh, it may be used for skhakh and is not susceptible to impurity.

Rabbi Eliezer says, small or large is the same: if it was made for lying on, it is susceptible to impurity and is invalid as skhakh; if made for a skhakh, it is valid as a skhakh and is not susceptible to impurity.

Someone who sleeps under a bed in the sukkah has not fulfilled his obligation. Rabbi Judah said: we had the custom to sleep under a bed in the presence of the elders, and they didn’t say anything to us.

Rabbi Shimon said: it happened that Tabi, the slave of Rabban Gamliel, used to sleep under the bed. And Rabban Gamliel said to the elders, “Have you seen Tabi my slave, who is a talmid-hakham, and knows that slaves are exempt from the sukkah, therefore he sleeps under the bed.”

And, incidentally, we learned that someone who sleeps under a bed has not fulfilled his obligation.

When Tabi, his slave, died he accepted condolences for him. His disciples said to him: Master, have you not taught us that one does not accept condolences for slaves? He replied to them: My slave Tabi was not like other slaves: he was kasher.

If someone supports his sukkah with the posts of a bed, it is kasher. Rabbi Judah says: if it cannot stand on its own, it is invalid. A disorderly sukkah and whose shade is more than its sun is kasher. If it is thick like a house is kasher, even though the stars cannot be seen through it.

One who makes his sukkah on the top of a wagon, or on the deck of a ship, it is kasher and one may go up into it on the festival.

On the top of a tree, or on the back of a camel, it is kasher, but one may not go up into it on the festival.

Two in a tree and one made by the hands of man, or if two were made by the hands of man and one was formed in a tree, it is kasher, but one may not go up into it on the festival.

If three walls were made by the hands of man and one was in a tree, it is kasher and one may go up into it on the festival.

This is the general rule: if the tree was removed and it could stand on its own, it is kasher and one may go up into it on the festival.

One may not go up into it on a festival. For it was decreed by the Rabbis that we don’t ascend upon a tree and we don’t use it lest he detach it.

If one makes his sukkah between trees, so that the trees form its walls, it is kasher. Those who are agents to perform a mitzvah are exempt from the sukkah.

People who are sick and their attendants are exempt from the sukkah.

One eats and drinks casually outside the sukkah.

People who are sick and their attendants are exempt from the sukkah.

And even those who have any kind of illness.

The fact that it is permitted to annual a positive commandment of the Torah because of a mere illness, or because one is pained because of bad smell or because of bed-bugs and fleas, in which case one is exempt, and similarly, those who are on a journey and those who guard gardens and orchards, whom the rabbis exempted from sukkah, is because it is written (Leviticus 23:42): “You shall dwell in booths", like the way you dwell otherwise, and wherever there is a thing that would make a person leave his dwelling, he can also leave his sukkah.

It once happened that they brought the food to Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai to taste, and two dates and a pail of water to Rabban Gamaliel and they said, “Bring them up to the sukkah.”

And when they gave Rabbi Zadok food less than the bulk of an egg, he took it in a napkin, ate it outside the sukkah and did not say a blessing after it.

They brought you this incident to teach you that someone who is strict on himself and doesn't eat or drink anything outside the sukhah is praised even though there is no obligation.

Rabbi Eliezer says, a person is obligated to eat fourteen meals in the sukkah, one on each day and one on each night. And the sages say: there is no fixed number, except on the first night of the festival.

Furthermore, Rabbi Eliezer said, if one did not eat in the sukkah on the first night of the festival, he may make up for it on the last night of the festival. But the sages say: there is no making up for this, and of this it is said: “That which is crooked cannot be made straight, and that which is lacking cannot be counted” (Ecclesiastes 1:15).

If someone's head and most of his body is within the sukkah and his table within the house, Bet Shammai say it is invalid and Bet Hillel say it is kasher.

Bet Hillel said to Bet Shammai: Did it not in fact happen that the elders of Bet Shammai and the elders of Bet Hillel went to visit Rabbi Yohanan ben HaHoroni and found him sitting with his head and most of his body within the sukkah and his table within the house, and they didn’t say anything to him?

Bet Shammai said to them: Proof from there? In fact they said to him, “If this is your custom, then you have never in your whole life fulfilled the commandment of the sukkah".

And the halakhah is according to Bet Shammai.

Women, slaves and minors are exempt from the sukkah. A minor who no longer needs his mother is obligated in the the sukkah.

It happened that the daughter-in-law of Shammai the elder gave birth and he opened up the ceiling and put skhakh on top of the bed for the little one.

As the Torah says (Leviticus 23:42): “Every citizen in Israel shall live in sukkot,” excluding the women, for even though they are obligated in the eating of matzah on the first night of Passover, they are not obligated in the sukkah on the first night of the Sukkot.

All seven days a man makes his sukkah his permanent residence and his house his temporary residence.

If rain fell, at what point may one be permitted to leave? When the porridge becomes spoiled. They made a parable; to what can this be compared? To a slave who comes to mix a cup for his master, and he poured a ladle over his face.

All seven days a man makes his sukkah his permanent residence. . .

The issue of permanence is a principle and a pillar and it means that someone should take his lovely things into the sukkah and spread them out in a beautiful arrangement like the one that he has in his house and should try to make it pleasant and to eat and drink in it and sleep in it and to make his house like a utility-room and his sukkah like a residence.

And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of the tree hadar, branches of palm trees and the the branch of a thick tree, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.

Hadar — It is called hadar because it is the tree whose fruit lives (הַדָּר) on the tree from one year to another (several years) — and this is the “Ethrog”.

Kapot temarim — The word כפת is written defective (without ו, not כפות) to intimate that only one branch is intended (Sukkah 32a).

And a branch of a thick tree — i. e. of a tree whose boughs are, as it were, plaited (intertwined one with another) like ropes (עבתות) and cords; this is the myrtle plant [hadas] which is indeed formed as a plait (three leaves issuing from one point of the branch and covering it) (Sukkah 32b).

A stolen or a dry lulav is invalid. One from an asherah tree or from a condemned city is invalid. If its tip was broken off or its leaves were detached, it is invalid. If its leaves are spread apart it is kasher. Rabbi Judah says he should tie it at the top.

The thorny palms of the iron mountain are kasher. A lulav which is three handbreadths in length, long enough to wave, is kasher.

A stolen or dry hadas is invalid. One from an asherah or a condemned city is invalid. If its tip was broken off, or its leaves were detached, or its berries were more numerous than its leaves, it is invalid.

If he reduced them it is kasher. But he may not reduce them on the festival.

A stolen or dry aravah is invalid. One from an asherah or a condemned city is invalid. One whose tip was broken off or whose leaves were detached, or a tzatzefah is invalid.

One that was shriveled or had lost some of its leaves, or one grown in a rain-watered soil, is kasher.

Rabbi Ishmael says: three hadasim, two aravot, one lulav and one etrog, even if two have their tips broken off and one is whole.

Rabbi Tarfon says: even if all three have their tips broken off. Rabbi Akiva says: just as there is one lulav and one etrog, so too only one hadas and one aravah.

An etrog which is stolen or withered is invalid. One from an asherah or a condemned city is invalid. Of orlah or of unclean terumah it is invalid. Of clean terumah, he should not take it, but if he did take it, it is kasher.

Of demai : Bet Shammai says it invalid, And Bet Hillel says it kasher. Of second tithe in Jerusalem: it should not be taken but, if he took it, it is valid.

If a rash spread out on most of it, or if its pitom is removed, if it is peeled, split, or perforated so that any part is missing, it is invalid.

If a rash spread out on a some part of it, if its stem was missing, or if it is perforated but no part of it is missing, it is kasher.

An Ethiopian etrog is invalid. An etrog which is green as a leek: Rabbi Meir declares it kasher and Rabbi Judah declares it invalid.

The minimum size of an etrog: Rabbi Meir says like a nut, Rabbi Judah says like an egg.

The maximum: such that two can be held in one hand, according to Rabbi Judah.

Rabbi Yose says, even with his two hands.

Rebbi Yose said, if it were written "and date-palms", it would be correct [to hold two species in one hand]. But only "date-palms" is written [without the "and"]. So even one in his one hand and the other in his other hand.

They said about Rebbi Akiva that he entered the synagogue with an etrog on his shoulders.

They may not bind the lulav except with its own species, according to Rabbi Judah. Rabbi Meir says: it may be bound even with a cord.

Rabbi Meir said, the people of Jerusalem used to bind their lulavs with strands of gold. They said to him, they bound it with its own species underneath.

And where do they wave? At the beginning and end of “Give thanks to the Lord” (Psalms 118:1), and at “O Lord, deliver us” (118:25), according to Bet Hillel. And Bet Shammai say, also at “O Lord, make us prosper” (118:25).

Rabbi Akiva says: I was watching Rabban Gamaliel and Rabbi Joshua, and while all the people were waving their lulavs they waved them only at “O Lord deliver us.”

Someone who was on a journey and had no lulav to take, when he enters his house he should take it at his table. If he did not take the lulav in the morning, he should take it at any time before dusk, since the whole day is valid for [taking] the lulav.

If someone has a slave, a woman, or a child read for him, he must repeat after them what they say, and a curse be upon him.

If an adult reads for him, he repeats after him "Halleluyah".

In a place where the custom is to repeat, one should repeat; to say once, one should say once; to recite a blessing afterwards, one should recite the blessing afterwards. Everything is dependent on local custom.

If someone purchases a lulav from his fellow in the sabbatical year, he should give him the etrog as a gift, since one is not permitted to purchase it in the sabbatical year.

Originally, the lulav was taken for seven days in the Temple and in the provinces for one day.

When the temple was destroyed, Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai decreed that the lulav should be taken in the provinces for seven days in memory of the Temple and that on the whole of the day of waving it should be forbidden.

And he shall wave the omer before the Lord to be accepted for you; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.

On the day after the sabbath — The day after the first day of the Passover (i.e. on the 16th of Nisan); for if you say that it means a weekly Sabbath you do not know which one (Menachot 66a).

And neither bread, nor parched corn, nor fresh ears shall you eat until this day, until you have brought the offering of your God; it is a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

If the first day of the festival falls on Shabbat, all the people bring their lulavs to the synagogue.

The next day they rise early; each one recognizes his own and takes it, since they said: a person cannot fulfill his obligation on the first day of the festival with his friend’s lulav.” But on the other days of the festival one may fulfill one's obligation with the lulav of a friend.

The Lord said "you shall take for yourselves on the first day" and the tradition comes to teach that "for yourselves" means that which belongs to you.

If he gave it as a gift he fulfills his obligation, even if the gift was conditional on its return. The principle we have is that a gift given on condition that it is returned is called a gift and it is permitted to give a gift on a festival.

Rabbi Yose says: when the first day of the festival falls on Shabbat, if someone forgot and carried his lulav out into the public domain, he is not liable since he brought it out with permission.

A woman may receive from her son or from her husband and put it back in water on Shabbat.

Rabbi Judah says: on Shabbat one may put it back, on a festival one may add, and on the intermediate days one may change.

A minor who knows how to shake is obligated in the lulav.

The lulav and the willow are for six and seven; the hallel and the rejoicing are for eight; the sukkah and the water libation are for seven; the flute is for five and six.

Thou shalt keep the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in from thy threshing-floor and from thy winepress.

And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates.

Seven days shalt thou keep a feast unto the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD shall choose; because the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the work of thy hands, and thou shalt be altogether joyful.

And thou shalt be altogether joyful.

According to its plain sense this is not the expression of a command but expresses an assurance: “thou will be rejoicing”.

And according to its interpretation they derived from here to include the night before the last day of the festival (preceding the eighth day) in the obligation of rejoicing (Sukkah 48a; cf. Sifrei Devarim 142:4).

“The lulav for seven.” How so? If the first day of the festival fell on Shabbat, the lulav for seven days; on any other day, for six.

“The willow for seven.” How so? If the seventh day of the willow fell on Shabbat, the willow for seven days; on any other day, for six.

How was the mitzvah of the lulav?

If the first day of the festival fell on Shabbat, they brought their lulavim to the Temple Mount, and the attendants would receive them and arrange them on top of the bench [portico?], and the elders laid theirs in the chamber.

And they would teach the people to say, “Whoever gets my lulav in his hand, let it be his as a gift.”

The next day they got up early, and came and the attendants threw them down before them, and they snatched at them, and people used to grab and to hit each other.

When the court saw that this was dangerous, they instituted that each man should take in his own home.

How was the mitzvah of the willow?

There was a place below Jerusalem called Moza. They went down there and gathered tall branches of willows and then they came and stood them up at the sides of the altar, and their tops were bent over the altar.

They then sounded a teki’ah, a teru’ah and again a teki’ah.

Every day they went round the altar once, saying, “O Lord, save us, O Lord, make us prosper” (Psalms 118:. Rabbi Judah says: “Ani vaho, save us.”

On that day they went round the altar seven times. When they departed, what did they say? “This beauty is yours, O altar! This beauty is yours, O altar!”

Rabbi Eliezer said: [they would say,] “To the Lord and to you, O altar, to the Lord and to you, O altar.”

As it was done on a weekday, so was its performance on Shabbat, except that they would gather them on the eve of Shabbat and place them in golden basins so that they would not become wilted.

Rabbi Yohanan ben Beroka says: they used to bring palm branches and they would beat them on the ground at the sides of the altar, and that day was called “the day of beating palm branches.”

Immediately after the children undo their lulavs and eat their etrogim.

The Hallel and rejoicing are on eight. How?

This teaches that a person is obliged for Hallel, for rejoicing and for honoring the festival on the last day, just as on all other festival days.

The sukkah is for seven days. How?

Once he finished eating he should not untie his sukkah, but he takes down its furniture from the time of minhah and onwards in honor of the last day of the festival.

Rebbi Aḥa, Rebbi Ḥinena in the name of Rav Hoshaiah: He who loves his sukkah makes Kiddush for the last holiday in his house and then goes up eats in his sukkah.

How was the water libation?

He used to fill a golden flask holding three logs [one quart] from the Shiloah. When they arrived at the water gate, they sounded a teki'ah, a teru'ah and again a teki'ah. He went up the ramp and turned left where there were two silver bowls.

Rabbi Judah says: they were of plaster but their surfaces were darkened from the wine.

They were pierced like two slender nostrils, one wide and the other narrow so that both emptied at the same time. The one on the west was for water and the one on the east for wine.

If he poured the flask of water into the bowl for wine, or that of wine into that for water, he has fulfilled his obligation. Rabbi Judah says: with one log he performed the ceremony of the water-libation all eight days.

They used to say, “Raise your hand”, to the person pouring because, once, someone poured out the water over his feet, and all the people pelted him with their etrogs.

As it was done on weekdays, so it was done on Shabbat, except that on the eve of Shabbat he would fill a non-sanctified golden barrel from the Shiloah, and place it in the chamber.

If it was poured away or uncovered, he would refill it from the laver, for wine or water which has become uncovered is invalid for the altar.

Ben Katin made twelve spigots for the laver, for there had been before only two. He also made a mechanism for the laver, in order that its water should not become unfit by remaining overnight.

The flute was for five or six days. This is the flute of Bet Hashoevah which does not override Shabbat or the festival.

They said: he who has not seen the joy of Bet Hashoevah has never seen rejoicing in his life.

At the conclusion of the first festival day of Sukkot they descended to the Women’s Court and they would make there a great tikkun.

Golden lampstands were there, and four golden bowls on the top of each of them and four ladders to each, and four youths drawn from the young priests, and in their hands there were jars of oil containing one hundred and twenty logs [10 gallons] which they poured into the bowls.

From the worn-out pants and belts of the priests they made wicks and with them they kindled the lamps. And there was not a courtyard in Jerusalem that was not illuminated by the light of the Bet Hashoevah.

Men of piety and deeds used to dance before them with lighted torches in their hands, and would say before them words of song and praise.

And the Levites, with harps, lyres, cymbals and trumpets and innumerable musical instruments stood upon the fifteen steps leading down from the Court of the Israelites to the Court of the Women, corresponding to the fifteen Songs of Ascents in the Psalms, where the Levites stood with their musical instruments and sang their songs.

Two priests stood by the upper gate which leads down from the Court of the Israelites to the Court of the Women, with two trumpets in their hands.

When the cock crowed they sounded a teki'ah, a teru'ah, and a teki'ah.

When they reached the tenth step they sounded a teki'ah, a teru'ah, and a teki'ah. When they reached the Court they sounded a teki'ah, a teru'ah, and a teki'ah. They would sound their trumpets and proceed until they reached the gate which led out to the east.

When they reached the gate which led out to the east, they turned their faces from east to west and said: Our fathers who were in this had "their backs toward the Temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east, and they worshipped the sun toward the east", but as for us, our eyes are turned to the Lord.

Rabbi Judah said: they used to repeat and say “We are the Lord’s and our eyes are turned to the Lord.”

They never have fewer than twenty-one blasts in the Temple, and never more than forty-eight.

On every day there were twenty-one blasts in the Temple: three at the opening of the gates, nine at the morning tamid sacrifice, and nine at the evening tamid sacrifice.

At the musafim they would add another nine. And on the eve of Shabbat they would add another six, three to stop the people working and three to mark a distinction between the holy and the profane.

On the eve of Shabbat during Sukkot, there were forty-eight: three at the opening of the gates, three at the upper gate, three at the lower gate, three at the water-drawing, three at the altar, nine at the daily morning sacrifice, nine at the daily evening sacrifice, nine at the additional sacrifices, three to stop the people working and three to mark a distinction between the holy and the profane.

And on the fifteenth day of the seventh month ye shall have a holy convocation: ye shall do no manner of servile work, and ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days;

And ye shall present a burnt-offering, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD: thirteen young bullocks, two rams, fourteen he-lambs of the first year; they shall be without blemish;

On the first festival day of Sukkot there were thirteen bulls, two rams and one goat. Fourteen lambs remained for the other eight priestly watches.

On the first day, six offered two each and the remaining one each.

On the second, five offered two each and the remaining one each.

On the third, four offered two each and the remaining one each.

On the fourth, three offered two each and the remaining one each.

On the fifth, two offered two each and the remaining one each.

On the sixth, one offered two and the remaining one each.

On the seventh, all were equal.

On the eighth day they again cast lots as on the other festivals.

They said: those who that offered bulls on one day should not offer them on the next, but that they should take their turns in rotation.

We will return to you, Tractate Sukkah, and you will return to us; our mind is on you, Tractate Sukkah, and your mind is on us.

We will not forget you, Tractate Sukkah, and you will not forget us – not in this world and not in the next world.