Sukkah 26a — the Talmud in English

They said in the name of Rabbi Shila:

A groom is exempt

even from the recitation of Shema, since he is more preoccupied than they are and cannot concentrate even on the first verse.

And the groomsmen and all the members of the wedding party

alone

are obligated

in the recitation of Shema, since they are not so preoccupied that they cannot concentrate even for a short while.

It was taught: Rabbi Hanania ben Akavia said: Those who write

scrolls, tefillin, and mezuzot, they and their merchants [

those who buy from them in order to sell them and make them available to those who need them, Rashi]

and the merchants of their merchants [

those who buy from the buyers in order to sell little by little]

and all those occupied with work for Heaven—including sellers of sky-blue wool [

for tzitzit]—

are exempt from the recitation of Shema, from prayer, from tefillin, and from all the mitzvot stated in the Torah—

to uphold the words of Rabbi Yose the Galilean.

For Rabbi Yose the Galilean used to say: One occupied with a mitzva is exempt from a mitzva.

Our Rabbis taught:

A.

Travelers by day are exempt from the sukka by day

, as it is written: “You shall dwell in sukkot”—like dwelling in one’s home; and just as throughout the year he does not refrain from traveling on the road for business, so throughout all the days of the festival Scripture did not require him to refrain from traveling on the road [Rashi],

and they are obligated at night.

B.

Travelers by night are exempt from the sukka at night and obligated by day.

C.

Travelers

whether

by day or

whether

by night are exempt from the sukka both by day and by night.

But

those traveling for the sake of a mitzva

by day

are exempt both by day and by night

, even though they travel only by day [Tosafot above], because they are preoccupied and concerned with the thought of the mitzva and its arrangements, they are exempt from the mitzva.

For it was like this with Rav Hisda and Rabba bar Rav Huna: when they would enter on the Shabbat of the festival to the house of the Exilarch [

when they would come on the Shabbat of Sukkot to the Exilarch, who lived in Sura],

they would sleep on the bank of the Sura [

they would sleep on the riverbank]—

for

they would say [

they used to say]:

We are messengers of a mitzva

we are

who have come to hear the discourse and greet the Exilarch,

and are exempt

from the sukka.

Our Rabbis taught:

A.

Guards of the city

from armies, so that they should not come upon them, who need to go around the city to guard it and cannot make a sukka in one place [Mishna Berura]—

if they guard

by day, they are exempt from the sukka by day and obligated at night.

Б.

B.

Guards of the city at night are exempt from the sukka at night and obligated by day.

C.

Guards of the city, both by day and by night, are exempt from the sukka both by day and by night.

And likewise

guards of gardens and orchards

who do not move from there

are exempt both by day and by night.

And we explain: Why are they exempt?

Let them make a sukka there and sit

, let them make a sukka at the place of their guarding and sit in it?!

Abaye said: “You shall dwell” means like you dwell

, in the manner in which he dwells throughout the year in his home, the Torah required him to leave his dwelling and dwell in a sukka with his beds, implements, and bedding; but this one cannot bring them there because of the exertion.

Rava said: An opening calls to the thief

, if the thief sees him sitting in the sukka, the thief will enter from another direction and steal the produce.

What difference is there between them:

There is a difference between them: when he is guarding a pile of produce [

he guards a pile of produce] that is always before him and he can guard it from within his sukka, and there is no “opening calling to the thief.”

We learned in the Mishna:

The sick and their attendants

are exempt from the sukka:

Our Rabbis taught: The sick person of whom they said

that he is exempt from the sukka

is not

only

a sick person whose illness involves danger, but even a sick person whose illness involves no danger

,

and even one whose eyes hurt and even one whose head hurts

and sitting in the sukka is difficult for him [Mishna Berura].

Rabban Shimon

and

ben Gamaliel said: Once my eye hurt in Caesarea, and Rabbi Yose the Great [

Rabbi Yose ben Halafta, the sharp sage of his generation]

permitted me and my attendant to sleep outside the sukka.

Rav permitted Rav Aha bardela to sleep in a canopy in the sukka [

Rav permitted him to sleep in a canopy in the sukka] that had a roof and was ten handbreadths high, and one who sleeps in it is like one who sleeps outside the sukka—

because of gnats [

mosquitoes, Ran].

Rava permitted Rabbi Aha bar Adda to sleep outside the sukka because of the smell of white earth

, he permitted him to sleep outside the sukka because he was distressed by the smell of the white earth with which they plastered the floor of the sukka.

And we explain:

Rava follows his own reasoning, for Rava said: One in discomfort

whom the sukka distresses [Rashi]

is exempt from the sukka.

And we challenge Rava:

But did we not learn

in our Mishna: “

The sick”

and their attendants are exempt from the sukka

, and it implies:

the sick person, yes

indeed he is exempt from the sukka, but

one in discomfort, no

, he is not exempt.

They said

the members of the academy to resolve the difficulty: “

The sick person”

and his attendants are exempt

, whereas “

one in discomfort”

is

indeed

exempt

, but

his attendants are not

exempt; and therefore in our Mishna, which exempts even the attendants, it teaches: the sick and their attendants.

We learned in the Mishna:

They eat a casual meal outside the sukka:

And how much

is

a casual meal

that is permitted outside the sukka?

Rav Yosef said: Two or three

, two or three times he puts into his mouth [Rashi], and that is two or three eggs [Tosafot].

Abaye said to him: But many times this suffices for a person [

for many times such eating is enough for a person],

and it becomes a fixed meal?!

Rather, Abaye said:

The measure of a casual meal is

as when a student tastes and enters for the bride [

as much as a student tastes in the morning when he goes to the beit-midrash], for he is concerned lest the teachings continue, and he tastes a mouthful [Rashi]; that is an egg, which he eats and which is swallowed in one gulp [Rashi, 27a].

Our Rabbis taught: One eats a casual meal outside the sukka, but one does not sleep a casual sleep outside the sukka.

And we explain:

What is the reason?

Rav Ashi said: A decree lest he fall asleep

, lest sleep seize him and he sleep a fixed sleep.

Abaye said to him

to Rav Ashi: According to your words, that you are concerned lest he fall asleep,

but regarding that which was taught: A person may sleep a casual sleep wearing tefillin, but not a fixed sleep

lest he emit wind while wearing them—

but

let us be concerned lest he fall asleep?!

Rav Yosef, son of Rav Ilai, said

in answer:

The matter of the tefillin beraita

speaks

of one who entrusts his sleep to others

, saying to his fellow: If I fall asleep, wake me!

Rav Mesharsheya objected to this

: But

your guarantor requires a guarantor [

the guarantor who guaranteed for you also needs a guarantor for his undertaking], that is, we must be concerned lest even the watchman lie down and sleep.

Rather, Rabba bar bar Hana said in the name of Rabbi Yohanan

another explanation of the tefillin beraita:

We are speaking of one who places his head between his knees

, and in this manner there is no concern lest he fall asleep.

Rava said

another reason why one does not sleep a casual sleep outside the sukka, and not because of lest he fall asleep, as Rav Ashi said, for we are not concerned about this, and this is the reason concerning tefillin [Rashi] , but:

Because

there is no fixed form of sleep

and concerning the sukka there is no distinction between fixed and casual, since a person does not establish himself for sleep, for sometimes he merely dozes a little and that suffices; therefore this is his sleep. But regarding tefillin, since the reason is lest he emit wind while wearing them, and not because of a prohibition of sleep, when he merely dozes a little he will not come to emit wind.

One beraita teaches [

we learned one beraita]:

A person may sleep a casual sleep wearing tefillin, but not a fixed sleep.

And another was taught:

A person may sleep wearing tefillin

both a fixed and a casual sleep.

And another was taught:

A person may not sleep wearing tefillin

neither a fixed nor a casual sleep.

And we explain all the beraitot so that they do not contradict one another:

It is not difficult:

This—

the ruling that it is forbidden to sleep wearing them, neither casually nor fixedly—speaks

when he holds them in his hand [

he holds the tefillin in his hands]; since there is concern lest they fall from his hand, he may not sleep wearing them at all.

This—

the ruling that it is permitted to sleep wearing them casually but not fixedly—

when they are placed on his head [

the tefillin are on his head, as is their normal use].

This—

the ruling that it is permitted to sleep wearing them both casually and fixedly—

when he spreads a cloth over them [

he covers the tefillin with a cloth] and places them beside his head, and it is permitted to sleep since the Torah was not given to ministering angels [Rashi].

And we explain:

And how much is a casual sleep?

Rami bar Ezekiel taught: The time required to walk one hundred cubits.

It was also taught so

that the measure of a casual sleep is the time required to walk one hundred cubits:

One who sleeps

a casual sleep [Tosafot ]

wearing tefillin and experiences a seminal emission

must remove them from his head while the emission is upon him; and this is

holding the strap

of the tefillin

and he does not hold the box

, the tefillin themselves, because it possesses sanctity itself on account of the shin of the tefillin [Ritva],

the words of Rabbi Yaakov.