Q&A: And the Sukkah Shall Be for Shade by Day
And the Sukkah Shall Be for Shade by Day
Question
Rabbi Michi, hello.
The Talmud at the beginning of tractate Sukkah brings three reasons why a sukkah over twenty cubits is invalid.
Rabbi Zeira’s view is that a sukkah is meant for shade, and he brings a verse from Isaiah: “And the sukkah shall be for shade by day.”
My question is: why does he bring specifically a verse from the messianic era to show that the purpose of a sukkah is shade, when there are other verses in the Hebrew Bible that could show that a sukkah is meant for shade?
Additionally, from the verse it sounds like the sukkah is also meant as shelter from storm and rain, which would even be proof regarding roofing that it is invalid.
2. One who makes his sukkah in Ashtarot Karnayim—why does the Talmud bring specifically this place for a sukkah between two mountains?
3. Is there a connection between the sukkah and its measurements and the measurements of the Temple, and if so, what is the sukkah meant to symbolize?
Answer
- What other verses? Shelter from storm and rain does not necessarily invalidate the sukkah. On the contrary, from several commentators (Oneg Yom Tov and Kovetz Shiurim) it appears that a sukkah indeed serves for that as well, since they write that someone who remains in it during rain is called a fool. He stays there so that the sukkah will protect him.
- Because those are two adjacent mountains, and therefore they cast shade on the middle.
- Only with the height of twenty cubits is there a calculation connected to the kaporet: “and His cloud spread over it.” But that does not seem like an essential source, only a source for the number twenty cubits. I don’t deal in nice interpretive homilies. You can produce a hundred of those for a penny.
Discussion on Answer
Why does realism matter? These are the measurements for a sukkah, and each person will build as he wishes within them. And if people want to say nice homiletic ideas, good for them. As I said, I don’t deal with that.
Still, why does the Mishnah begin with a law that isn’t all that realistic—who builds a sukkah twenty cubits high?
And then maybe it is trying to hint at the Temple, since the height of the vestibule was twenty cubits and the ark with the kaporet was ten handbreadths, and therefore that is the minimum height of the sukkah. Meaning, by using specifically these measurements, the Talmud is trying to hint at the connection between sukkah and the Temple.