succah 14

building with boards

closed secret succahs in dangerous dark times and open succahs where everything hangs out.

succah 13

unravelling the willow shelters

(this drawing is based on a photograph of a shelter made from willow in a park in Brooklyn. I saw it a few days after a storm and it was in a state of dissary. it looked beautiful. I thought of it because this page discusses using a shelter made of willow as a succah, which is permissible only if it was untied at the top)

succah 12

bundled and beaten

neither is suitable for the succah roof

(this page discuss not being able to use tied bundles of straw as roofing, or beaten flax)

succah 11

what covers them?
these two who argue about fire and water.

is the succah like the cover of clouds of glory, mists rising from the ground.

or are they like the actual shelters in the wilderness years. and preparing them is like preparing the festive offerings that will be consumed in fire.

(- yet another argument between Resh Lakish and R. Yohanan. Resh Lakish argues that the succah is like a mist, cloud. a watery substance. R. Yohanan is fiery, and he makes a connection to the offerings on the altar. These two men have long intrigued me. Their relationship, intimate yet adversarial, is echoed in a theme in their continual debates - fire v. water. opposites that can destroy each other)

succah 10

succah decorations fade into nothing when they mix with the roofing. they have no significant dimension or cover. they are just beautiful. they are nothing.

(don't need to consider how low the decorations hang when calculating the space under the roofing of a succah. interestingly the examples given in a baraita of succah decorations include fabrics and various fruits and food - items that could become impure and therefore not permitted to be used as roofing)

succah 9

comparing cutting branches for the succah roof and tzitzit.

succah 8

calculating the area of a circular space, depending on the area of people sitting.

even if they don't have to sit in the succah