One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
סֻכָּה
Shofar, Sukkah and Lulav 4
Sefer Zemanim · The exact anatomy of a kosher sukkah - its measurements, its walls, and the law that completes what the builder leaves open
10
Handbreadths, the minimum height
20
Cubits, the height it may not exceed
7×7
Handbreadths, the minimum floor
3
Walls required, the third nearly nothing
Part 1The measurements
- Height, both floors and ceilings. No less than ten handbreadths and no more than twenty cubits; even the slightest amount short or over invalidates it. (4:1)
- Floor space. At least seven by seven handbreadths - room for a head, most of a body, and a small table; too short in either dimension invalidates it even if the total area reaches forty-nine. (4:1)
- No ceiling on breadth. There is no maximum area; a sukkah may be enlarged to span several mil, since all Israel is fit to sit in one sukkah. (4:1)
- Why twenty cubits. Anything taller must be built as a permanent dwelling, and a sukkah is required to be temporary. (4:1)
RememberA sukkah is disqualified for being too permanent, never for being too flimsy.
Part 2Walls the law completes
- Three walls, the third minimal. Two full walls meeting at a corner suffice when joined by a third of just over a handbreadth plus a tzurat hapetach, the form of a doorway. (4:2)
- L'vud seals the gap. A gap of three handbreadths or less is treated as closed - a wall hanging from the roof is kosher if it stops less than three handbreadths above the ground. (4:4)
- Gud asik raises the wall. A wall ten handbreadths high is considered to rise up to the s'chach even when it does not physically reach it. (4:4)
- Doors and windows. Many openings are fine even when the open portion exceeds the closed, provided no single gap is wider than ten cubits. (4:12)
RememberThe gap you can see does not break the wall - the law seals what the builder left open.
Part 3Living and improvised walls
- Trees as walls. Trees may serve as walls if bound and stuffed with straw so they form a solid continuum that a normal land wind cannot sway. (4:5)
- On the move. A sukkah on a wagon, a ship's deck, a treetop, or a camel is kosher, though one may not climb up to a tree-borne sukkah on the festival. (4:6)
- A person as a wall. One may eat, drink, and sleep in a sukkah whose wall is a living colleague standing at its edge. (4:16)
- Only unawares. This works only when the person does not know he is serving as a wall; consciously using a person for the third wall on the festival is forbidden. (4:16)
RememberThe walls that hold you up are often the ones that never knew they were walls.