For the source text click/tap here: Sukkah 15
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Boards that are four handbreadths or less - how can we say that they are fit to cover a sukka? Apparently Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai had a dispute about this. Or perhaps they did not have a dispute. Today's daf is about what makes an argument as much as it is about the argument itself.
The Rabbis consider the placement of the skewers/boards and the placement of the halachically fit schach. They also look at how skewers/boards might become ritually impure. And everything that is invalid for the skhakh is valid for the walls. When it comes to the walls all we are concerned about is that there are walls—we are not at all concerned with the material of the walls.
We cite Rabbi Berman's plea (citing then chief Rabbi Lau) for the Israeli public not to pilfer nor destroy trees for the sake of s'chach, forcing us to consider the impact of our halachic zeal on the environment...