Sukkah 23b (כג:) — the Talmud in English

And once it dies -

it contracts, and he is unaware of it [

and when it dies, it contracts, and he does not pay attention] that it has moved three handbreadths away from the roofing, since this is not noticeable.

And we raise an objection:

Did Abaye say

that

Rabbi Meir is concerned about death

and therefore said that one may not use an animal as a wall for a sukka,

whereas Rabbi Yehuda is not concerned

and therefore permits using an animal as a wall for a sukka?!

But didn’t we learn: A daughter of Israel who married a kohen

and is permitted to eat teruma as long as her husband is alive,

and her husband went overseas,

she

continues to eat teruma on the presumption that he is alive.

And we juxtapose a difficulty against it

from that Mishna, from a beraita that teaches:

“This is your bill of divorce, effective one hour before my death,”

she

is immediately forbidden to eat teruma,

because perhaps he will die, and this is the hour before his death; consequently, the bill of divorce takes effect from now.

This proves that we are concerned about death!

And Abaye said

in order to resolve the difficulty:

It is not difficult! This is Rabbi Meir, who is not concerned about death; that is Rabbi Yehuda, who is concerned about death [

as he proceeds to explain. If so, however, there is a difficulty: In our discussion Abaye said the opposite regarding the views of Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehuda]—

As it is taught in a beraita: One who purchases wine from the Kutim

who are not suspected of separating teruma and tithes when they sell to others, for they are suspected of violating “you shall not place a stumbling block before the blind” [Tosafot], for example, when Friday night has arrived or when he has no vessels with which to separate terumot and tithes—

He

says: The two log that I am destined to separate

after I begin drinking,

they shall be

from now

teruma

gedola—

Ten

log that I will separate later shall be from now

first tithe ,

and

nine

log shall be from now

second tithe.

And he begins [

he redeems] the second tithe that he designated by name onto coins that he has in his house , since this matter can be rectified immediately.

And he drinks immediately

while leaving aside the amount required for the teruma and the first tithe—which he designated by name—and does not drink them; later he separates the teruma and the tithe, and we say: It becomes retroactively clear that these log had initially been set aside for separation, and it is upon them that the teruma took effect,

the statement of Rabbi Meir.