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    Chapter 1 · Sukkah

    A sukkah taller than twenty amot

    Lesson 1 of 16 22 min

    The tractate opens with measurements: height, walls and shade. Not a list of materials, but the question of what turns a structure into a sukkah.

    Lesson goals
    • 01Restate the source in your own words.
    • 02Identify the central distinction and explain its significance.
    • 03Apply the distinction in the exercise without adding a ruling absent from the source.
    01

    Source and decoding - Sukkah 2a

    Sukkah 2a
    ״לְמַעַן יֵדְעוּ דוֹרוֹתֵיכֶם כִּי בַסּוּכּוֹת הוֹשַׁבְתִּי אֶת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל״, עַד עֶשְׂרִים אַמָּה, אָדָם יוֹדֵעַ שֶׁהוּא דָּר בַּסּוּכָּה, לְמַעְלָה מֵעֶשְׂרִים אַמָּה — אֵין אָדָם יוֹדֵעַ שֶׁדָּר בַּסּוּכָּה, מִשּׁוּם דְּלָא שָׁלְטָא בַּהּ עֵינָא.

    The Mishnah invalidates a sukkah taller than twenty amot, and Rabbi Yehudah validates it. This excerpt gives Rabbah’s explanation of the first Tanna’s ruling, based on "so that your generations may know."

    The Mishnah invalidates a sukkah taller than twenty amot, and Rabbi Yehudah validates it. Rabbah derives from "So that your generations may know": up to twenty amot a person senses he dwells in a sukkah; above that the eye does not take in the covering. The sukkah is measured by what its occupant experiences.

    02

    Building the reasoning

    1. 1Restate the source in your own words.
    2. 2Identify the central distinction and explain its significance.
    3. 3Apply the distinction in the exercise without adding a ruling absent from the source.
    03

    Terms to decode

    סכך
    the sukkah covering
    לא שלטא בה עינא
    the eye does not reach it
    פסולה
    invalid
    04

    Before moving on

    Insight

    This lesson is a study framework, not a halachic ruling. Check everything in the sources, and bring practical questions to a rabbi.

    Practice

    Write one sentence linking the verse "so that they may know" to the twenty-amah limit.

    Lesson wrap-up

    According to Rabbah, the twenty-amah limit follows from "so that they may know": the eye must perceive the covering. Rabbi Zeira and Rava offer other explanations of the limit.

    Check your understanding

    Test yourself before marking the lesson complete.

    Question 1 of 3

    What is the law of a sukkah over twenty amot per the first Tanna?

    Next lessonAn old sukkah - made for the festival