Sukkah 12: ״תעשה״,ולא מן העשוי

For the source text click/tap here: Sukkah 12

To download, click/tap here: PDF

A sukkah fashioned by hollowing out an existing haystack is invalid. This disqualification is known as “taaseh velo min haasui,” which means you must create a valid sukkah and not fix an invalid one. This principle is derived from the verse “[Chag] hasukkot taaseh lecha” – “[the festival of] Sukkot you shall make for yourself.”

The principle of taaseh velo min haasui is derived from the fact that the word “sukkot” precedes the word “make.”

The Modzhitzer Rebbe, zt”l, writes that Chazal’s statement that one who learns a lot of Torah should not feel self-satisfied is also expressed in our gemara. “Make it, and do not use that which is already made.” תעשה—always consider yourself to be just beginning to serve Hashem. Nothing has been done, everything is yet to be accomplished. העשוי מן ולא—do not rest on your laurels and rely on that which you have already achieved.

Sukkah 11: Clouds of Glory

For the source text click/tap here: Sukkah 11

To download, click/tap here: PDF

The Gemara cites a dispute between Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Elazar regarding the explanation of the verse that states so that your generations will know that I caused the Children of Israel to dwell in Sukkos when I took them from the land of Egypt.

Which Sukkos is the Torah referring to? Rabbi Akiva maintains that the verse refers to the booths that Hashem made for the Jewish People when they were sojourning in the Wilderness. Rabbi Elazar, however, maintains that the verse refers to Clouds of Glory return. Nonetheless, the Clouds of the Clouds of Glory that encompassed the Jewish People in the Wilderness.

It is noteworthy that Rashi in his commentary on Chumash and in his commentary earlier on Daf 2 only quotes the opinion of Rabbi Elazar who maintains that the festival of Sukkos is to commemorate the Clouds of Glory.

The Gemara in Ta’anis 9a states that HaShem performed three miracles for the Jewish People in the Wilderness. Hashem provided the Jewish People with a traveling well of water that was in the merit of Miriam. The Jewish People were further provided with manna that fell from heaven and sustained them and the manna was in the merit of Moshe.

Sukkah 10: (Noy Succah)

For the source text click/tap here: Sukkah 10

To download, click/tap here: PDF

Decorations are discussed at some length. The rabbis are careful to specify whether or not hangning decorations will change the area of the sukka.

It was stated: The decorations of a Sukkah do not diminish the height of the Sukkah. Rav Ashi said: But at the side, they do diminish (the width of a Sukkah).

There is a debate in the Gemara regarding a sheet that was hung for decorative purposes at a distance of more than four tefachim away from the s’chach. Rav Nachman rules that the Sukkah is valid because the sheet is subordinate to the s’chach. Rav Chisda and Rabbah bar Rav Huna maintain that the Sukkah is invalid because the decorations are considered independent of the s’chach above it.

The Shelah writes that hanging ornaments in the Sukkah reflects our endearment for the mitzvah of Sukkah. Thus, the more one enhances the beauty of the Sukkah with ornaments, the more praiseworthy he is.

Although there is no formal halachic obligation to decorate the Sukkah, doing so is clearly an ancient custom (decorations are mentioned in early and later writings of Chazal), and it fulfills the precept of “this is my G-d, and I will beautify Him” (Shemos 15:3).

And though our principal focus concerning decorations is that they should adorn the Sukkah as best as possible, we explore halachic issues that Sukkah decorations are liable to raise.

Sukkah 9: Stolen Succah

For the source text click/tap here: Sukkah 9

To download, click/tap here: PDF

Our Daf begins with another Mishna: a sukka built under a tree is like a sukka built in a house: unfit. A sukka built on top of another sukka might be unfit; however, Rabbi Yehuda says that the lower sukka is fit as long as there are no residents in the upper sukka.

Our Daf states furthermore, that the verse which declares that a sukkah must be “yours” comes to teach that the mitzvah cannot be fulfilled if one uses a stolen sukkah

A stolen Sukkah applies not only to thievery but also using the halacha as a weapon….stealing the civic rights of a family to build a succah despite the halachic objections of neighbors above.

We present the landmark 2015 Israeli Supreme Court Case which tests the limits of secular vs halachic power in case involving a succah built above another.

Sukkah 8: The Round Succah

For the source text click/tap here: Sukkah 8

To download, click/tap here: PDF

The sages set minimal dimensions for a sukkah to be considered serviceable.

Thus, for example, according to Rabbi Judah the Nasi the length and width of a square sukkah must be no less than two meters by two meters: “A sukkah which is less than four amot by four amot is invalid.” One of the scholars, R’ Yochanan, said that if the sukkah were round, the minimal size must be in keeping with the minimal size of a square sukkah, so its size was set as such that 24 people could sit within its circumference.

The scholars asked: Why does a round sukkah have to be so big?

The space a person needs to sit is set at a half meter, so the circumference would have to be 12 meters, but for the circumference to match the area of the square, one would have to multiply the length of the square by three, which is the ratio between the diameter and circumference of a circle.

Although we have discussed the maths of the circle in the square in Daf Ditty Eruvin 76 we revisit the issue in regards to the round Succah….

Sukkah 7: The Third Wall

For the source text click/tap here: Sukkah 7

To download, click/tap here: PDF

Partitions... where should they be placed? What is the appropriate shape of a sukka? Should it be rectangular, like an alleyway? If there is the measure of an expansive handbreadth at the end of one wall, in which direction should that partial-wall face? Does it count as a third wall? And what about a doorway; could that count as a third wall?

Our daf discusses a Sukkah that has two complete walls that are perpendicular to each other and the third wall is a tefach, and the question is where the third wall should be placed. Rav maintains that the third wall should be placed adjacent to the end of any of the walls. Rav Kahana and Rav Assi asked Rav: Let him erect the third wall corresponding to the head of a diagonal line?

The fact that the third wall of a sukkah may be comprised of a single tefach is due to a הלכה le Moshe mi’Sinai—a Torah law from Sinai that is not scripturally based, yet traced back to Moshe Rabeinu, passed down through the generations.

We look at the various possibilities and diagrams of such structures which leads us back to the dazzling 2010 NYC competition...

Sukkah 6: Kaleidoscopic Succah

For the source text click/tap here: Sukkah 6

To download, click/tap here: PDF

A minimum of three walls is needed to create a sukkah. Nevertheless we have learned that only two of those walls need to be complete – the third wall can be just a tefach (handbreadth) wide and from a legal perspective it will be viewed as a complete wall.

The Torah uses the word sukkot three times in commanding us to sit in sukkot. While the word is pronounced in the plural, sukkot, twice the word is written in the singular, without the letter vav. Hence, the debate as to whether yeish aim lamikra or yeish aim lamasoret: is the "mother" of all interpretations that which is written, or that which is spoken? If the former, the Gemara asserts, a sukkah would need three and half walls; and if the latter, it would only need two and a half walls.

After an international design contest that drew 78 entries from 14 countries, five winning sukkahs (temporary huts built for the weeklong Jewish holiday Sukkot) have landed in Detroit’s Capitol Park. The competition was part of Sukkah x Detroit, a celebration of Jewish culture, Detroit’s status as a UNESCO City of Design, and the city’s large number of urban farms; the chosen sukkahs make reference to all three.

Sukkah 5: Schechina

For the source text click/tap here: Sukkah 5

To download, click/tap here: PDF

In a midrashic analysis of the source for the minimum acceptable height of a sukkah (ten tefachim), the Gemara looks to the height of the aron – the ark containing the luhot ha-berit (the tablets of the covenant) – which was ten tefachim high. It is clear from the Biblical description that the aron was nine tefahim high; the additional tefah was the height of the kaporet that covered the aron.

The Gemora says that the Divine presence never descended below 10 tefachim, and no person ever ascended above 10 tefachim. The Maharatz Chiyus explains this allegorically to mean that Hashem grants all people free will. Therefore, He does not intervene in their actions in this world, effectively “remaining” in the upper realm. Even when Moshe and Eliyahu ascended, they didn't lose their human identity. Therefore, the angels asked Hashem what a human being was doing among them, and Eliyahu would appear as a person to the Sages.

This leads us to an exploration of the meaning of the term Schechina and how it developed through the kabbalistic and hassidic tradition.

Sukkah 4: Rishon le-Cheshbon Avonot

For the source text click/tap here: Sukkah 4

To download, click/tap here: PDF

We witness the creation and finalization of halachot in our daf. First we learn about raising the floor of a sukka to decrease its height. Next we learn about shade and sagging roofs. Then platforms within the sukka are considered. We look at "curved walls" and at dug out portions of a sukka floor. In most of these cases, the rabbis turn to related case law to determine these halachot. After deciding how/whether that case law should apply to their current question, the rabbis state when a sukka is fit and when it is unfit.

Thinking still, about the Maseches Succah following Yoma….

We are told to fix the succah immediately after Yom Kippur without delay… which leads us to the enigmatic statement: Rishon the lecheshbon avonos

and the sweet Torah of Rav Levi Yitzchak Mi berditchev (Kedushas levi) as to the nature of the transition which we undergo as we proceed from the Yamim Nora’im to Sukkot.

Sukkah 3: Smallest Dimension

For the source text click/tap here: Sukkah 3

To download, click/tap here: PDF

Aside from the discussion in the Mishnah with regard to the height of a sukkah, there is also a need to define the minimum size of a sukkah. The Gemara on our daf presents a discussion between Bet Hillel and Bet Shammai, in which they agree that it must be large enough to fit a person’s head and the majority of his body (rosho ve-rubo), but they disagree on whether there is cause for concern that he will lean out of the sukkah if the table is placed outside. According to Bet Hillel this is not something that we fear will happen; so as long as rosho ve-rubo fit, the sukkah is fine. Bet Shamai rules that this is a concern, so we must make the sukkah large enough to contain the table, as well.

We explore the joys of Succot in LA and Jerusalem through the lens of unlikely writers including the story of the Deller Succah and its miraculous voyage out of Nazi Germany...the Deller sukkah was considered unique already at the beginning of the 20th century, and today, stands out as one of very few known sukkahs to have survived the Holocaust with its paintings intact.

We end with an imaginary spoof on Dr Who!

Sukkah 2: Dimensions

For the source text click/tap here: Sukkah 2

To download, click/tap here: PDF

The Gemara presents four opinions for why a Sukkah taller than 20 Amos is Pasul. There are practical differences between these opinions with regard to whether there are exceptions to the Pesul of a Sukkah taller than 20 Amos, and under what circumstances those exceptions apply.

We explore the dimensions of the succah and the inner dimension of Succah as a metaphor for life per R Simon Jacobson (always true to his Chabad worldview)

and the curious phenomenon of Dutch Christians celebrating Sukkot in a suburb of The Hague called Pijnacker….

Yoma 88: Ne’ilah

For the source text click/tap here: Yoma 88

To download, click/tap here: PDF

Rav maintains that Ne'ilah is recited at night, and it replaces the Tefilah of Ma'ariv. The Gemara shows that the Tana of a Beraisa disagrees with Rav and says that Ne'ilah is recited before nightfall and does not replace Ma'ariv. The Gemara defends Rav's opinion and says that the time at which Ne'ilah is recited is the subject of a Machlokes Tana'im, and Rav follows the Tana who rules that Ne'ilah is recited at night.

In the context of defining what comprises the special Ne’ilah prayer on Yom Kippur, the Gemara on our daf brings a baraita that discusses people who go to the mikvah to immerse themselves on Yom Kippur.

We explore a number of writers on Ne'ilah and its effect on our spiritual process ending with a smooth transition into Succos and our next tractate.

Yoma 87: Sin and Addiction

For the source text click/tap here: Yoma 87

To download, click/tap here: PDF

The conclusion of Tractate Yoma this week brought Daf Yomi readers face to face with the heart of Yom Kippur: repentance.

For months now, we have learned about the color of the high priest’s robes and how to sacrifice a goat to Azazel. Most of these matters concern the ordinary Jew not at all, and the overall picture of Yom Kippur that one gets from the Talmud feels very far from the holiday as we experience it today. But now, at the culmination of the whole tractate, the rabbis zero in on the spiritual and ethical questions that concern us most. How exactly does Yom Kippur achieve atonement for our sins?

What steps must we take to show that repentance is sincere?

Rav Chisda teaches that we must apologize in three ways: We say, I have sinned, I perverted what was right, my sin did not profit me", as taken from Job 33:27. Rabbi Yosei bar Chanina agrees with the three part apology, but he suggests, "please, please forgive my transgression, and now please forgive", this idea taken from Genesis 50:17.

“Please, please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they did evil to you. And now, please forgive”

If we owe money, we must pay that money back. If the wronged person dies before accepting our apology, the apology is repeated at his gravesite with ten people as witnesses.

This leads us to the Difference in Obligation of Bein Adam Le-chavero and Bein Adam La-Makom, an essay by Rav Zimmerman... and an exploration of repentance and forgiveness and the parallels between the 12 step program and penitence.

Yoma 86: Pardons All Around (Except Acher)

For the source text click/tap here: Yoma 86

To download, click/tap here: PDF

As we approach the end of Masechet Yoma, the Gemara turns to the most essential issue of this holy day – the atonement offered by Yom Kippur itself and the teshuva – repentance – associated with this time of year.

In a series of statements of Amoraim praising the attributes of teshuva, two statements made by Resh Lakish (who was, himself, a famous ba’al teshuva) are presented. In one of them Resh Lakish argues (based on the passage in Hoshea 14:2) that teshuva changes zedonot – sinful acts done on purpose – to shegagot – acts done by accident. In the second statement, (based on Yechezkel 33:19) he teaches that through the good offices of teshuva, zedonot are turned into zekhuyot – positive attributes.

To answer this apparent contradiction, the Gemara distinguishes between teshuva that is done because of love – when zedonot turn into zekhuyot – and when it is done out of fear of punishment – when zedonot become shegagot.

We examine the notion of Atonement and Pardon, and the exceptions, most notably Elisha ben Abuya or Acher and why he was refused pardon.

How does Milton Steinberg's account (albeit fictional) differ from the texts we inhabit? (as a Driven Leaf)

Yoma 85: Selicha, Mechila, and Kappara

For the source text click/tap here: Yoma 85

To download, click/tap here: PDF

Finally we arrive at the concept of atonement and forgiveness!!

“The ritual bath of Israel is God” Just as a ritual bath purifies the impure, so too, the Holy One, blessed be He, purifies Israel.....is it the day which purifies or the effort?

We explore a number of commentators and the metaphor of the mikveh...and Rebbe's outrageous claim "It was taught: Rabbi says: For all sins in the Torah, whether one repents or not – the Day of Atonement atones, except for one who throws off the yoke, offends regarding Torah, or revokes his carnal covenant, where if one repents—the Day of Atonement atones, and if not—the Day of Atonement does not atone."

Finally the Qumran Pesher Habakuk' diatribe against the "wicked Kohen Gadol" in the Temple!

Yoma 84: Medicine and Halacha

For the source text click/tap here: Yoma 84

To download, click/tap here: PDF

A number of illnesses are discussed on our daf.  What might have been hepatitis; what may have been diphtheria.  Treatments, including bloodletting, are mentioned as well.  At issue is the treatment of illness on Shabbat. The rabbis agree that an illness must be life-threatening for a person to administer medicine on Shabbat.  They argue about which illnesses are in fact life-threatening. 

We explore medicine in the talmud from Pikuach nefesh and Shabbat (Rav Lichtenstein) to the influence of Galen on the Rabbis and the struggle between medicine and religion in the Rambam by Elinor Lieber.  

Yoma 83: Bulmus and Anorexia

For the source text click/tap here: Yoma 83

To download, click/tap here: PDF

In the case of one who is seized with the life-threatening illness bulmos, causing him unbearable hunger pangs and impaired vision, one may feed him even impure foods on Yom Kippur or any other day until his eyes recover, as the return of his sight indicates that he is recovering.

The rabbis consider illnesses, including confusion or tunba (seemingly senility or dementia), and bulmos. Bulmos, which has the same root as bulimia (Ancient Greek for 'excessive hunger') is a condition that includes symptoms of excessive hunger and loss of vision. The eyes recover first as a person heals from bulmos.

The term bulimia comes from Greek βουλιμία boulīmia, "ravenous hunger",

Although diagnostic criteria for bulimia nervosa did not appear until 1979, evidence suggests that binging and purging were popular in certain ancient cultures. The first documented account of behavior resembling bulimia nervosa was recorded in Xenophon's Anabasis around 370 B.C, in which Greek soldiers purged themselves in the mountains of Asia Minor. It is unclear whether this purging was preceded by binging.

we explore the syndrome of Anorexia vs bulimia ...and modern techniques to manage this deadly disease affecting young people.

Yoma 82: The Pregnancy and Pikuach Nefesh

For the source text click/tap here: Yoma 82

To download, click/tap here: PDF

Included in the cases of life-saving taking precedence over the laws of Yom Kippur is that of an expectant mother whose unborn child smells food. If the resulting desire to taste that food is not satisfied, the lives of both mother and child are in danger. The mishna therefore tells us that she must be given to eat from that food until she recovers.

The saving of life overrides any commandment. Our Daf (Yoma 82a) explains that nothing stands in the way of “pikuach nefesh”, saving a life, other than the cardinal sins of idol worship, illicit relations or murder.

An Israeli study found that during the Day of Atonement, Jews had twice as many preterm deliveries.

To investigate why, they matched data on deliveries at the hospital from 1988 to 2012 with the Jewish calendar. Of the mothers, 388 were Jewish and 357 were Bedouin. Forty-seven, or 6.3 percent, of the births were premature, or earlier than 37 weeks after conception.

Yoma 81: Erev Yom Kippur

For the source text click/tap here: Yoma 81

To download, click/tap here: PDF

Four different reasons are given for the mitzvah to eat on Erev Yom Kippur. Rabbeinu Yonah (1) records three of those reasons.

The first reason is to show the great joy of knowing that the time for our atonement has arrived.

A second explanation is that on other Yomim Tovim there is a meal to celebrate the joy of the mitzvos but since on Yom Kippur we cannot have that meal we hold it on Erev Yom Kippur.

A third rationale is to strengthen our bodies before the fast. Hashem knows that fasting is difficult and therefore, commanded us to eat the day before Yom Kippur, in order to ease the affliction (2)

The last reason is recorded in Shibolei Haleket. He writes that the reason for the mitzvah to eat on Erev Yom Kippur is to make the fast more difficult (the opposite of the previous explanation). There are a number of practical ramifications that emerge from these different reasons. One case would be a person who is ill and will eat on Yom Kippur.

The Eliya Rabbah (Rav Eliyahu Shapira’s gloss on the Shulchan Arukh) suggests that someone who eats a lot the day before the fast has a harder time refraining from eating on the fast day, therefore the person who spends the ninth of Tishrei eating is credited for having additional inuy.

Others point out that Yom Kippur is a holiday, a day on which we really should be eating and drinking.

Since we cannot eat and drink on Yom Kippur, we “make up” for it on erev Yom Kippur.

We explore the halacha of eating on the Erev Yom kippur and the chassidic dimension.

Yoma 80: Bar Yochni

For the source text click/tap here: Yoma 80

To download, click/tap here: PDF

Our daf asks: Even if we claim that the measure for impure foods is an egg-bulk, one could say it is referring to the giant egg-bulk of the bird called bar yokhani.

and elsewhere:

Rabbi Yishmael ben Satriel also testified before Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi: Once an egg of the bird called bar yokhani fell, and the contents of the egg drowned sixty cities and broke three hundred cedar trees.

Among Jews, as among most nations (Gubernatis, "Zoological Mythology," on Birds), birds were thought to possess supernatural knowledge, because they soared in the air.

Overall, bird imagery in Semitic literature outside the Old Testament has an imaginative and mystical flare. There’s the giant ziz, the avian equivalent of leviathan and the legends that King Solomon, the wise monarch and son of King David, could understand the language of birds. We have descriptions in The Apocalypse of Abraham, a first- or second-century CE text of pre-Rabbinic Judaism, of the great patriarch and an angel making their way to heaven by aid of a pigeon’s and turtledove’s wings .

And in other writings, we learn that sparrows sing as spirits continue to be born, set forth from the Guf, a mysterious storehouse of souls. However, once the last spirit departs from this realm, the songs of sparrows will cease and the world will soon end.