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 left 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.

2)

(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 ...

(b)... except on Erev Pesach (when it is a Mitzvah to prepare the Korban Pesach and to begin the Seder early [so that the children will remain awake as long as possible]) and on Erev Yom Kippur (when it is a Mitzvah to eat in preparation for the fast).

(c)We learned in a Beraisa that thirty of Hillel's eighty disciples were worthy of the sun stopping in the sky on their behalf, like Moshe Rabeinu - thirty, of the sun stopping in the sky on their behalf, like Yehoshua bin Nun, and twenty, somewhere in between.

(d)

1. The greatest of them all was Yonasan ben Uziel.

2. The smallest, Rebbi Yochanan ben Zakai.

3)

(a)Among the almost endless of things that Rebbi Yochanan ben Zakai knew is Tanach, Mishnah and Agados (Midrashim) in their entirety (See Maharshal). 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 l'Moshe mi'Sinai.

3. ... 'Dikdukei Torah' - extra letters (like the '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)When the Tana concludes his list with ...

1. ... 'Davar Gadol', he means - 'Ma'aseh Merkavah' (that Yechezkel saw, and that serves as the basis of Kabalah).

2. ... 'Davar Katan', he means - the 'Havayos d'Abaye v'Rava' (i.e. all the She'eilos asked by the Amora'im, which had for the most part already been asked by the Tana'im, but had been forgotten by then).

4)

(a)The above describes the greatness of Rebbi Yochanan ben Zakai. Yonasan ben Uziel was even greater, inasmuch as, in addition to all the above - when he studied Torah, the angels would come to listen, and any bird that flew past would get burned from their fire.

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 - where 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)Beis Shamai countered that - by denying Beis Hillel's version of the story.

(c)In fact, they exclaimed - that if that was how he always ate his meals in the Sukah, then he had never observed the Mitzvah of Sukah in his life!

6)

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

(b)In the Pasuk in Emor "Kol ha'Ezrach b'Yisrael Yeshvu ba'Sukos", the Tana of the Beraisa learns from ...

1. ... "ha'Ezrach" - that women are exempt from Sukah.

2. ... "Kol" - that children are Chayav.

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

(d)Regarding 'Inuy' on Yom Kippur, we include women from the word "ha'Ezrach" - implying that "Ezrach" (without the 'Hey') incorporates men only (an apparent contradiction with the previous Limud).

7)

(a)To answer the above Kashya, we initially explain that one of the two cases is literal, and the other, a 'Halachah l'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 wonders why we need a Pasuk at all to exempt women from Sukah, or to include them in the Mitzvah of Inuy on Yom Kippur (for reasons that we shall now clarify).

(b)It ought to be obvious ...

1. ... that women are Patur from Sukah - because it is a 'Mitzvas Aseh she'ha'Zeman Geramah' (a positive time-bound Mitzvah, from which women are generally exempt anyway).

2. ... that they are Chayav Inuy on Yom Kippur - 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 Lavin.

(c)Abaye concludes that in fact, the word 'Ezrach' implies only men, the extra 'Hey' would therefore normally include women (as we initially think regarding Inuy on Yom Kippur), and the 'Halachah ... ' comes to exempt them. And when the Beraisa says "ha'Ezrach", 'l'Hotzi es ha'Nashim' - it is merely an Asmachta (and not a real Derashah at all).

(d)And we need the 'Halachah ... ' to counter Chazal's Derashah "Teshvu", 'Ke'ein Taduru' (obligating a man to live in the Sukah in the same way as he lives in his house), which would include women, who would otherwise be exempt - because it is a 'Mitzvas Aseh she'ha'Zeman Geramah' (from which women are generally Patur).

8)

(a)Rava agrees with Abaye in principle, though he would have incorporated women in the Mitzvah of Sukah (which the 'Halachah ... ' counters) - from the 'Gezeirah Shavah' "Chamishah-Asar" "Chamishah-Asar" from Matzah (where we already know that women are Chayav).

(b)Now that ...

1. ... we have a 'Halachah ... ' exempting women from Sukah, we learn from the 'Hey' of "ha'Ezrach" - that Geirim (converts) are included in the Mitzvah of Sukah.

2. ... women are Chayav to practice Inuy on Yom Kippur because of Rav Yehudah Amar Rav, we need the extra 'Hey' in "ha'Ezrach" to obligate them on Tosefes Yom Kippur (the few minutes that one is obligated to add to the Kedushah of Yom Kippur).

(c)We might otherwise have thought that ...

1. ... Geirim are Patur from Sukah - because the Torah writes "b'Yisrael".

2. ... women are exempt from Tosefes Yom ha'Kipurim - because the Torah preclude it both from Kareis and from the Lav (leaving it as purely an Aseh, which women would normally be Patur because it is time-bound).

9)

(a)To reconcile the Beraisa, which includes children in the Mitzvah of Sukah from the word "Kol" with our Mishnah, which exempts them - we establish the former by children who have reached the age of Chinuch, and the latter by children who have not.

(b)However, since the obligation for a child who has reached the age of Chinuch to observe Mitzvos is only mid'Rabanan - the Pasuk quoted by the Tana of the Beraisa, must be 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 'Ima'! when he wakes up.

(d)Not every child who calls 'Ima' when he wakes up, is Patur from Sukah - only one who does so persistently, is.

10)

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

(b)To explain why the Mishnah illustrates the previous ruling (i.e. that a young baby who needs his mother is Patur from Sukah) with a story that contradicts it - we will need to amend the Mishnah and to add to the Tana Kama's words: 've'Shamai Machmir' - followed by the story of the elders of Beis Shamai and Beis Hillel.

11)

(a)Throughout the seven days of Sukos, a person should make his Sukah Keva and his house Arai - by taking all his finest crockery and cloths ... up to 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 (such as walking around, if one would normally have done so in the house, and learning) there too.

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

(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, who threw the jar of the water into his face (this will be explained later).

12)

(a)We reconcile the Beraisa, which obligates even the study of Gemara in the Sukah, with Rava, who maintains that, whereas the study of Tanach and Mishnah should be performed in the Sukah, one may study Gemara in the house - by establishing the former to the initial review (which requires little concentration); and Rava - to the second time that one reviews it, which entails a deeper understanding of the subject-matter (and which therefore requires more concentration).

(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.