More Discussions for this daf
1. Translations 2. Mavoy vs. Sukah 3. Walls of the Sukah
4. Shade 5. Iron walls 6. 7 Sons
7. Tashbetz 8. Rashi's Mention of Ananei Kavod 9. Isur d'Oraisa?
10. Source That Sukah Must Provide Shade 11. Shade Of Sukah Above 20 Amos 12. Torah sh'Ba'al Peh before Torah sh'Bichtav
13. Shitas Tosfos in Definition of Keva 14. What is it? 15. Sukah 4 X 4
16. mitzvah of sukah 17. Story of Queen Helene 18. Sukah with mirrors
19. A filled-in Sukah 20. Mavoy
DAF DISCUSSIONS - SUKAH 2

Yosef asked:

Can you please explain to me about the story with the women with 7 sons and her posul succah???

Yosef, New York, U.S.A.

The Kollel replies (in Hebrew):

Here's the Sugya in brief.

R. Yehudah tries to prove that a Sukah of more than twenty Amos must be Kasher, since Queen Helen sat in her more than twenty-Amah tall Sukah in Lud, and the elders who came to visit her did not protest.

When the Rabbanan replied that Queen Helen was a woman, who is exempt from sitting in a Sukah, R. Yehudah retorted that she had seven sons, at least some of whom must have reached the stage where they were no longer tied to their mother's apron-strings, and who were therefore obligated to sit in a Sukah, and even if this is only mi'de'Rabbanan, Queen Helen strictly adhered to all the Rabbinical laws no less than to those of the Torah.

Then the Gemara asks that according to those who establish the Machlokes between R. Yehudah and the Rabbanan by a small Sukah, since when does a queen (who has a large retinue) sit in a small Sukah?

To which the Gemara first answers that the Sukah was made up of cubicles, but concludes that her servants sat in a large Sukah, but that for purposes of modesty, the Queen herself sat in a small side cubicle (which constituted the Pasul Sukah which R. Yehudah and the Rabbanan were disputing). R. Yehudah's proof is now based on the assumption that Queen Helen's children were sitting with her in the small cubicle (yet the elders were silent).

This is the basic explanation of the Sugya, though I did not clarify all the details. Please let me know if there are any other points in the Sugya that you would like clarified.

May you be written and inscribed in the Book of good life in the forthcoming year.

Be'Virchas Kol Tuv

Eliezer Chrysler