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1) THE QUESTIONS ASKED OF R. ELIEZER

(a) (Tana Kama) R. Eliezer was asked 30 questions regarding the laws of Sukah, 12 of which he responded to as having heard them from his teachers, and 18 he did not.
(b) (R. Yosi b.R. Yehudah) He reported having heard 18 and had not heard 12.
(c) R. Eliezer was asked if, indeed, he is so careful not to say anything which he did not hear from his teacher.
(d) R. Eliezer responded (being forced to speak about himself, something which he did not hear from his teachers) listing his personal attributes, including the fact that he never said anything which he had not heard from his teachers.
(e) A similar and even larger list of qualities is attributed to R. Yochanan b. Zakai, upon whom R. Eliezer modeled his qualities.
(f) Of the 80 students of the great Hillel (whose strengths are described), R. Yochanan b. Zakai was the least.

1. The Beraisa goes on to list every area of knowledge which R. Yochanan b. Zakai had mastered.
2. If this was true of the least of Hillel's disciples, what could be imagined of the greatest of them, Yonasan b. Uziel!
3. It is said of Yonasan b. Uziel that birds flying overhead were singed when he studied.

(a) One must have his head, the majority of his body and his table in the Sukah.

1. Beis Shamai invalidates the Sukah if his table is within the house.
2. Beis Hillel allows this arrangement.
3. Beis Hillel attempt to support their position citing the elders who silently acquiesced while R. Yochanan b. HaChornis sat with his table in the Sukah.
4. Beis Shamai respond that indeed all the visitors told R. Yochanan b. HaChornis that he could not have fulfilled his Mitzvah in this manner.

(b) Women, slaves and minors are exempt from Sukah.
(c) A boy who no longer needs his mother is obligated.
(d) The Elder Shamai made a Sukah above his daughter-in- law's bed to provide a Sukah for her child.

(a) Question: What is the source for their exemption?
(b) Answer: The Heh of HaEzrach excludes women, while Kol includes minors.
(c) Question: Are we to thus infer that Ezrach without the Heh would imply both men and women, contrary to the Beraisa (where HaEzrach comes in *include* women in the afflictions of Yom Kipur)!?
(d) Answer (Rabah): The Heh can either include or exclude, but the matter is decided through Halachah l'Moshe MiSinai and then attributed to the Pasuk.
(e) Question: Which, Sukah or Yom Kipur, is derived from the Pasuk itself, and which comes from Halachah l'Moshe MiSinai?
(f) Additional Question: We do not need either of these, given that Sukah is time tied, thus exempting women, and a woman's obligation to abstain on Yom Kipur is learned from the Pasuk (as taught by R. Yehudah citing Rav)!?

(g) Answer (Abaye): Ezrach means men, and HaEzrach should include women, who are exempt because of the Halachah l'Moshe MiSinai.

1. Question: Why do we need a tradition to exempt women from Sukah?
2. Answer (Abaye): We might have obligated them as part of the obligation to dwell in the Sukah as one would dwell in his home, with his wife.
3. Answer (Rava): We might have obligated women due to the existing connection between the night of Sukos and the night of Pesach, where women are obligated to eat Matzah.

(h) Question: If Sukah is Halachah l'Moshe MiSinai, then what, indeed, does the Heh in the Pasuk teach us?
(i) Answer: It includes converts (whom we might have excluded due to the word Yisrael in the Pasuk).
(j) Question: Why do we need a Pasuk to include women in Yom Kipur, given the teaching of R. Yehudah citing Rav?
(k) Answer: To include women in the minutes added to Yom Kipur.

1. We might have exempted women from these minutes given that they are not subject to the warnings and punishments of Yom Kipur itself.
2. This lesser status might be translated into an exemption for women which the Pasuk precludes.

(a) Question: But the Mishnah exempts minors!?
(b) Answer: The inclusion speaks of minors who are educable, while the exemption refers to those younger.
(c) Question: But the obligation of educable minors in Mitzvos is mi'd'Rabanan, and is surely is not derived from a Pasuk!?
(d) Answer: Indeed it is mi'd'Rabanan, and the Pasuk is only used as an Asmachta.

(a) Question: When is a minor considered independent of his mother?
(b) Answer (Bei R. Yanai): When he can clean himself.
(c) Additional Answer (Resh Lakish): When he awakes and does not call out for his mother.
(d) Question: But even older children may call out Mother upon awaking!?
(e) Answer: We mean that he calls out repeatedly until mother responds.

(a) Question: The cited incident (wherein Shamai prepared a Sukah for his grandson) contradicts the very law of Mishnah (exempting minors) which it is supposed to illustrate!?
(b) Answer: By emending the Mishnah we learn that minors are exempt, but Shamai was stringent regarding minors.

(a) One's principle residence is in the Sukah for seven days.
(b) Rain exempts one from the Sukah once porridge would spoil from it.
(c) Rainfall on Sukos is analogous to a servant who gave the cup to his master and who spilled it in his face.

(a) Question: What is the source for the Sukah obligations listed in the Beraisa?
(b) Answer: The word Teishvu is understood to mean reside as one would in one's house, including in-depth study.
(c) Question: But Rava taught that, while lesser learning takes place in the Sukah, in-depth study takes place outside?
(d) Answer: One speaks of reviewing that which is known to him, and the exemption speaks of in-depth analysis which one may do where he is most comfortable.

1. The concept of these two levels of study is illustrated by Rava and Rami b. Chama.
2. After hearing the Shiur from R. Chisda they would briefly overview all of the covered points, and only then analyze them in-depth.