Previous daf

1)

(a) Some say that Rebbi Eliezer was able to answer *twelve* of the thirty questions that they asked him about Sukah in the upper Galilee. According to others - he was able to answer *eighteen*.

(b) Rebbi Eliezer was always the first in the Beis Hamedrash, he never slept there, and he never leave anyone in the Beis-Hamedrash when he departed - neither did he ever speak idle chatter, or transmit anything that he had not learned from his Rebbes.

(c) He learn these things from his Rebbe, Rebbi Yochanan ben Zakai.

(a) He also learned from Rebbi Yochanan ben Zakai, not to walk four Amos without Torah and Tefilin, not to think Torah in unclean alleyways and never to sit silent (but always to be learning - verbally) - he also learned from him to be the one to open the door for his disciples and never to announce that it was time to stop learning Torah (except on Erev Pesach (when it is a Mitzvah to prepare the Korban Pesach and to begin the Seder early [so that the children should remain awake as long as possible]) and on Erev Yom Kipur (when it is a Mitzvah to eat in preparation of the fast).

(b) Thirty of Hillel's eighty disciples were worthy that the sun stop for them in the sky, like Moshe Rabeinu - thirty, that the sun stop for them in the sky like Yehoshua bin Nun, and twenty, in between.

(c)

1. The greatest of them all was Yonasan ben Uziel.
2. The smallest, Rebbi Yochanan ben Zakai.

(a) There doesn't seem to be much that Rebbi Yochanan ben Zakai did not know: He knew Tenach, Mishnah and Agados (Medrashim) in their entirety. The meaning of ...

1. ... Gemara - is the understanding of the sayings of the earlier Tana'im by the later ones (even though the era of the Gemara per se had not yet even begun).
2. ... Halachos - is Halachos le'Moshe mi'Sinai.
3. ... 'Dikdukei Torah' - extra letters (like the extra 'Hey' in "ha'Ezrach" that we discussed on the previous Daf), which come either to include or to exclude, depending on the context.
4. ... 'Dikdukei Sofrim' - the Rabbinical decrees that Chazal issued, to prevent us from transgressing Torah laws.

(b) He knew all the Kal va'Chomers, the Gezeiros Shavos and Gematri'os (cum Notrikuns - acronyms). 'Tekufos' - is the reckoning of the movement of the sun and the moon, for the purpose of working out Rosh Chodesh and the formation of leap years.

(c) He knew the speech of the angels and of the demons (i.e. he had the power to make them swear to him - and do his bidding). And he could tell the future from the movement of the branches and the leaves of a palm tree (on days when the wind was not blowing). 'Mishlos Kovsin' and 'Mishlos Shu'alim' - are words of reprimand couched in parables of launderers or foxes.

(d)

1. 'Davar Gadol' - means 'Ma'aseh Merkavah' (that Yechezkel saw, and that serves as the basis of Kabalah).
2. 'Davar Katan' - the 'Havayos de'Abaye ve'Rava' (i.e. all the She'eilos asked by the Amora'im, which had already been asked by the Tana'im, but had been forgotten by then).

5)

(a) We have already learned that Beis Shamai disqualifies a Sukah, if the table from which one is eating is inside the house (i.e. outside the Sukah). To prove that it is nevertheless Kasher, Beis Hillel cite the episode when the elders of Beis Shamai and Beis Hillel went to visit Rebbi Yochanan ha'Choranis on Sukos, and although they found him sitting with most of him in the Sukah, but with his table in the house, they said nothing.

(b) Not true, countered Beis Shamai! in fact - they said to him that if that was the way that he always ate his meals in the Sukah, then he had never observed the Mitzvah of Sukah in his life!

(a) Women, slaves and children are Patur from Sukah - the latter until he is no longer tied to his mother's apron strings.

(b) The Tana of the Beraisa learns from the Pasuk in Emor ...

1. ... "Kol *ha'Ezrach*" - that women are exempt from Sukah.
2. ... "Kol" - that children are Chayav.

(c) According to this, the word "Ezrach" (without the 'Hey') incorporates women too.

(d) Regarding 'Inuy' on Yom Kipur, we *include* women from the word "ha'Ezrach" - implying that "Ezrach" (without the 'Hey') incorporates men only.

(a) To answer the above Kashya, we initially explain that one of the two cases is literal, and the other, a Halachah le'Moshe mi'Sinai, whereas the Pasuk quoted by the Beraisa is only an Asmachta. Besides being in a doubt as to which is which - the Gemara asks why we need a Pasuk at all to exempt women from Sukah, or to include them in the Mitzvah of Inuy on Yom Kipur (for reasons that we shall now clarify).

(b) It is obvious ...

1. ... that women are Patur from Sukah - because it is a 'Mitzvas Asei she'ha'Zeman Geramah' (a positive time-bound Mitzvah, from which women are generally exempt anyway).
2. ... that they are Chayav Inuy on Yom Kipur - because of Rav Yehudah Amar Rav, who derives from the Pasuk in Bamidbar (with regard to the obligations of someone who is Mo'el in Hekdesh) "Ish O Ishah ... ", that women share the same obligations as men when it comes to La'avin.

8)

(a) Abaye concludes that the word 'Ezrach' implies only men, the 'Hey' in "ha'Ezrach" would normally *include* women (as indeed it does by Inuy on Yom Kipur - see d.). Nevertheless, we need a 'Halachah le'Moshe mi'Sinai' to exempt women from Sukah (despite the fact that it is a positive time-bound Mitzvah) - because, says Abaye, we would have obligated women on account of the Derashah "Teishvu" - 'ke'Ein Taduru', a man together with his wife, in the same way as they live in the house.

(b) Rava agrees with Abaye in principle, though *he* learns that women would otherwise be Chayav Sukah - from the 'Gezeirah Shavah' "Chamishah-Asar" "Chamishah-Asar" from Matzah (where we already know that women are Chayav).

(c) Now that we have a 'Halachah ... ' to exempt women from Sukah - we learn from the 'Hey' of "ha'Ezrach" to include converts in the Mitzvah of Sukah (whom we would otherwise have exempted because the Torah writes 'be'Yisrael", which normally comes to preclude converts).

(d) In spite of the Derashah of Rav Yehudah Amar Rav, which includes women in the Din of Inuy on Yom Kipur, we need the extra 'Hey' in "ha'Ezrach" - to obligate them, not in Inuy *on Yom Kipur itself*, but on *Tosefes* Yom Kipur (the few minutes that one is obligated to add to the Kedushah of Yom Kipur, which is precluded even from the La'av of Yom Kipur, and is no more than an Asei).

(a) The Beraisa, which includes children in the Mitzvah of Sukah from "Kol" - refers to children who *have* reached the age of Chinuch; whereas our Mishnah, which exempts them - speaks about children who have *not*.

(b) The obligation for a child who has reached the age of Chinuch to observe Mitzvos is only *mi'de'Rabbanan* - and the Pasuk, quoted by the Tana of the Beraisa, is only an Asmachta.

(c) Rebbi Yanai defines a child who no longer needs his mother, as one who does not need his mother to wipe him clean - Resh Lakish, as one who does not call out 'Mummy'! when he wakes up.

(d) Not every child who calls 'Mummy' when he wakes up, is Patur from Sukah - but one who calls 'Mummy'! persistently, is.

(a) When Shamai ha'Zaken's daughter-in-law gave birth - he broke a hole in the ceiling over her bed and filled it with S'chach (presumably there were less than four Amos from the edge of the hole to the wall, at least on three sides).

(b) The Mishnah brings an illustration which contradicts what it just taught (i.e. that a young baby who needs his mother is Patur from Sukah). Consequently, we need to add to the Tana Kama's words: 've'Shamai Machmir' - followed by the story of the elders of Beis Shamai and Beis Hillel.

(a) Throughout the seven days of Sukos, a person should make his Sukah Ke'va and his house Arai - by taking all his nicer crockery and cloths etc. up into the Sukah (the Tana always speaks of the Sukah as being higher than the house, because they used to build their Sukos on the rooftops),

(b) One is obligated to eat, drink and sleep in the Sukah - and to perform all one's other occupations there too e.g. walking around (which one would normally have done in the house) and learning.

(c) If it rains, one is exempt from the Mitzvah - provided the rain is spoiling his food.

(d) On Sukos (in Eretz Yisrael), rain is considered a bad omen - Chazal compared it to a slave who was diluting wine for his master, and he poured out the water into his face (this will be explained later).

(a) The Beraisa (which obligates even the study of *Gemara* in the *Sukah*) - is referring to the *initial* review (which requires little concentration); Rava (who maintains that, whereas the study of *Tenach and Mishnah* should be performed in the *Sukah*, one may study *Gemara* in the *house*) - to the *second* time that one reviews it, which entails a deeper understanding of the subject-matter.

(b) We prove this from Rava bar Chama and his study-partners - who would quickly review together what they had just learned in front of their Rebbe, Rav Chisda, before studying it again in depth, each one on his own.