Sukkah 1:1 - 1:2

סוכה שהיא גבוהה למעלה מעשרים אמה פסולה – for a Sukkah, we require a temporary dwelling, as it is written (Deuteronomy 16:13): “[After the ingathering from your threshing floor and your vat,] you shall hold the Feast of Booths for seven days,” the Torah said that you shall make a Sukkah for seven days, and higher than twenty cubits, a person does not make [for] his dwelling a temporary dwelling, but rather a permanent dwelling.

ור"י מכשיר – as he holds that the we require for the Sukkah a permanent dwelling. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.

ושאינה גבוהה י' טפחים – it is invalid, for it is a decayed/decomposed dwelling and no person dwells in a decayed/decomposed dwelling.

ושאין לה ג' דפנות – as it is written (defectively, without the “vav” twice in Leviticus 23:42 and once more fully in Leviticus 23:43): “in booths,” “in booths,” “in booths”. Two are defective/lacking and one is full (see Talmud Sukkah 6b); one [of them] is for the S’khakh/the cover of the festive booth/Sukkah, for the explanation of [the word] “Sukkah” is S’khakh, there remains to them three for the three walls. A traditional interpretation of a law (i.e., a usage dating from Moses as delivered from Sinai) is brought and we diminish one wall and establish it as a handbreadth, there remains two walls according to the traditional law and the third [wall] is a handbreadth [long]. Therefore, a Sukkah which has two walls one adjacent to the other, we make a third wall which has in it a handbreadth and a bit more and set it up at less than three [handbreadths] from one of the [other] two walls, for anything where there is a gap that is less than three handbreadths [distant] is like a legal fiction of considering separated parts as united [if the gap is less than three handbreadths], and I is considered as if it is a wall of four handbreadths and the result is that most of the wall is made, and this Sukkah has three walls, and one must make the form of an opening for it. But if the two walls are opposite each other and the between them, it is perforated, one brings a partition/barrier of four handbreadths and a bit more and establishes it no less than three-handbreadths near one of the two walls and it is considered as if there is with this barrier seven handbreadths which is the appropriate measurement of a Sukkah lengthwise and by width, for the Sukkah must have seven [handbreadths] by seven [handbreadths] in order to support one’s head, the majority of one’s body and one’s table, six [handbreadths] by six [handbreadths] for one’s head and the majority of one’s body and one’s table and one handbreadth by one handbreadth for one’s table.

ושחמתה מרובה מצלתה פסולה – but when they are equivalent, when the sunlight is like the shade, it is valid, and specifically if they are equivalent from the bottom at the ground of the Sukkah, for it is known that above with the S’khakh/the cover of the festive booth, its shade is greater than its sunlight, for people say, like a Zuz from above like a silver coin/half-a-zuz from below.

בית שמאי פוסלין – for they require “Sukkah” (the first mention of the word) for itself, and it is made for an undefined purpose, for if it was made within thirty days of the Festival [of Sukkot] since we ask about the laws of the Festival thirty days prior to the Festival, if he is simply making a Sukkah for the purpose of the Festival, but prior to thirty days, he is not simply making it for the sake of the holiday.

וב"ה מכשירין – for they (i.e., the School of Hillel) do not require the [first use of the word] “Sukkah” for the purpose of the Festival.

כאילו עשאה בתוך הבית – and it is invalid.

תחתונה פסולה – for it has two [sets of] S’khakh/coverings of the festive booth, and the Biblical verse invalidates a Sukkah that is underneath [another] Sukkah.

אם אין דיורין בעליונה – which is not appropriate for dwelling, such as [if] the lower roof is unable to endure/sustain pillows and cushions of the upper [Sukkah]. But the First Tanna/teacher and Rabbi Yehuda did not disagree if it cannot endure it all, and in that, the entire world admits that the lower [Sukkah] is valid with the S’khakh/coverings of the festive booth of the upper [Sukkah], for its roof is not considered a roof, and it is not a Sukkah that is underneath a Sukkah. But if it is healthy and cable of receiving the pillows and cushions of the upper [Sukkah], the entire world does not argue that it is invalid. But they disagree when it can receive it in an emergency/when needed, such as the case where the roof of the lower [Sukkah] shakes and vibrates from the pillows and cushions of the upper [Sukkah], where the first Tanna holds that in this case it is called a Sukkah that is underneath a Sukkah and is invalid, and Rabbi Yehuda holds that since it other than in the case of an emergency cannot accept the pillows and cushions of the upper [Sukkah], it is not considered a roof, and this is not a Sukkah that is underneath a Sukkah. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.