Page 266 - Chayei Adam LAYOUT sivan 5782

Chayei Adam - K’lal 146 - Laws of the Succah

a tar coating, the succah is posul by Torah law, even if he decides to use it as his
succah now, because of ‘taaseh v’lo min ha’asui’, as above, because a house is not
a valid succah, as the Torah says [to sit in] a succah, not a house. 123 Therefore, he
must do an action such as removing all of the nails and lifting up each plank, 124 or
by removing every other plank and placing kosher s’chach in its place, in which
case the entire succah is valid, even the planks which measure four tefachim, 125 as
gezeiras tikra doesn’t apply, because he does an action which demonstrates that
he knows the laws of taaseh v’lo min ha’asui, and that the law is that one cannot
sit under the roof of his house. 126

]28[ S’chach which protrudes from the succah has the status of the succah
[itself]. 127 For example, if one constructed two walls in a long ‘L’ shape and the

םדו רשב
he concludes there that under extenuating every other plank, filling in the space with
circumstances one may use planks of wood other kosher s’chach. The rishonim explain that
even if they measure more than four tefachim, even if the planks measure four tefachim wide,
as is true of any other rabbinically prohibited removing the nails is sufficient, since he has
s’chach. proactively dismantled the roof, thereby
demonstrating that he knows that it was not
123. See above note 78 where we have valid without doing so (Gemara).
וצ
explained that Chazal forbade covering a
succah with planks of wood measuring four 124. Chayei Adam’s note: As Rashi and
tefachim wide since one may confuse it with the Bartenura explain, and this is clear.
הצ
an ordinary house. Here we address the case Meaning that removing the nails alone is not a
of one who wishes to actually transform the sufficient enough act to render the s’chach
roof of his house into s’chach, the very reason kosher. Rather, it needs to be lifted and put
why Chazal forbade using planks of wood for back down in order that it is placed there for
s’chach. Since he does nothing to make this the express purpose of serving as s’chach.
succah (short of his decision to turn his house
into a succah), it is posul by Torah law, because 125. The Rambam, however understands
of ‘taaseh v’lo min ha’asui’ (since he didn’t that removing the nails only helps if the planks
make the succah). Yet, the mishna (Succah 15a) of wood are less than four tefachim wide. זצ
teaches that a roof can be turned into a Although some (Magen Avraham, Bikurei
succah, provided it doesn’t have a tar coating, Yaakov) understand that the Rambam
by either removing its nails, or by removing concedes that removing every other plank is

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