Julian Ungar-Sargon

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Daf Ditty

A wide-ranging commentary on the daily page of Talmud.

Sukkah 16: Succah in a Haystack

jyungar July 23, 2021

For the source text click/tap here: Sukkah 16

To download, click/tap here: PDF

The Mishna ruled that if one burrowed an opening inside a haystack, it is not a valid Sukkah because the s’chach was not placed there with the intention of being used for shade . Rav Huna qualifies this ruling and maintains that if previously there would have been a space of a tefach high and seven squared tefachim and then one would place the haystack on top of this space and subsequently he would burrow out a space, the Sukkah would be valid because it would be deemed to be as if he had extended the existing walls. Even though the roof is made out of materials that ordinarily can be used for sechach, a sukkah cannot be made this way.

The Gemara on our daf quotes a baraita that seems, however, to teach the opposite. According to the baraita, someone who burrows into a stack of grain and creates an area large enough for a sukkah can succeed in establishing a kosher sukkah.

To solve this apparent contradiction, Rav Huna distinguishes between a situation where there was an already existing space within the mound that was a tefach high and seven tefachim in width and length, and one where no such space existed. In the event that there was an already existing space, it can be enlarged to create a sukkah. The teaching in our Mishnah was that in a case where the mound was solid, a person cannot dig out the space for a sukkah.

Although we had discussed the history of the haystack today we explore the artistic expression against accelerationism, through which contemporary images and artworks are more rapidly generated and consumed, whereby the needle, the haystack, the thread motions toward a redefinition, if not eradication of, Western progress that weaves and traverses through time.

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Julian Ungar-Sargon

This is Julian Ungar-Sargon's personal website. It contains poems, essays, and podcasts for the spiritual seeker and interdisciplinary aficionado.​