📖 Daily Rambam (1 Chapter) Laws of Sukkah – Chapter 2: The Rules of S’chach (Roofing)

This chapter is devoted almost entirely to the laws of s’chach, the defining feature of a sukkah.

The Rambam explains:

• What materials may be used as s’chach
• What invalidates s’chach
• The principles of shade versus sunlight
• Sukkah beneath trees
• Sukkah within a sukkah
• Borrowed and stolen sukkot

 

Halachah 1 – What Makes Valid S’chach?

S’chach must satisfy several requirements.

It must:

✅ Grow from the ground

✅ Be detached from the ground

✅ Not be susceptible to ritual impurity (tumah)

✅ Not have an offensive odor

✅ Not constantly shed debris

The first three are fundamental Torah requirements. The last two are Rabbinic concerns to ensure people will actually remain in the sukkah.

 

Halachah 2 – Invalid Materials

The following cannot serve as s’chach:

❌ Metal

❌ Bones

❌ Animal hides

❌ Living plants still attached to the ground

❌ Materials susceptible to tumah

If used, the sukkah is invalid.

The Rambam explains that substances with bad smells or excessive shedding are technically valid after the fact, but the Sages discouraged their use.

 

Halachah 3 – Foods and Produce

Food may not be used as s’chach because food can contract ritual impurity.

Branches Bearing Fruit

For example:

• Fig branches with figs
• Vine branches with grapes
• Palm branches with dates

The determining factor:

If the inedible part exceeds the edible part, they may serve as s’chach.

Otherwise they may not.

 

Vegetables That Wither Completely

If the material will entirely disintegrate after drying:

❌ Invalid.

Because eventually no real s’chach remains.

 

Halachah 4 – Flax and Ropes

Raw Flax

✅ Valid.

It is still considered natural plant material.

Processed Flax

❌ Invalid.

Its form has been fundamentally changed.

Natural Fiber Ropes

Made from:

• Palm fibers
• Hemp
• Similar materials

✅ Valid.

 

Halachah 5 – Arrows

The Rambam discusses arrow shafts.

Solid “Male” Shafts

✅ Valid.

Hollow “Female” Shafts

❌ Invalid.

Because they contain a receptacle and are therefore considered utensils capable of contracting impurity.

 

Halachah 6 – Mats

Reed mats and similar products depend on their intended use.

Small Mat

Assumed to be for lying on.

❌ Invalid.

Large Mat

Assumed to be for shade.

✅ Valid.

Unless specifically intended as bedding.

 

Mats With Borders

A border makes the mat resemble a container.

Therefore:

❌ Invalid.

Even after removing the border, it remains a former utensil and is still invalid.

 

Halachah 7 – Wooden Boards

Boards less than four handbreadths wide:

✅ Valid.

Boards four handbreadths or wider:

❌ Should not be used.

This Rabbinic decree prevents someone from sitting under a normal roof and calling it a sukkah.

 

Sleeping Under Wide Boards

Even when the sukkah remains technically kosher:

❌ One should not sleep beneath such boards.

 

Halachah 8 – Converting a Roof Into S’chach

A regular roof was built:

For a house, not for a sukkah.

Therefore it cannot automatically become valid s’chach.

However:

If the boards are lifted, removed, or altered for the sake of the sukkah:

✅ They become valid.

Provided the boards themselves meet halachic requirements.

 

Halachah 9 – Sukkah Must Be Made for Shade

A key rule:

A sukkah need not be built specifically for the mitzvah.

But it must be made:

For shade.

Thus:

✅ Animal shelters

✅ Gentile sukkot

✅ Temporary shade structures

can be valid.

 

Structures Formed Accidentally

❌ Invalid.

The classic example:

Hollowing out a space inside a haystack.

The covering was never placed there for shade.

 

Halachot 10–11 – Bundles

The Sages prohibited using tied bundles as s’chach.

Reason:

A person might leave bundles drying on his roof and later decide to treat them as a sukkah.

That would create:

“A sukkah which came into existence by itself.”

Therefore:

❌ Tied bundles are invalid.

✅ Untied bundles become valid.

 

Halachah 12 – Sukkah Under a Tree

One of the most famous rulings:

A sukkah under a tree is like a sukkah inside a house.

Therefore:

❌ Invalid.

The tree’s foliage acts as another roof above the sukkah.

 

Detached Branches

If branches originally attached to the tree were later detached:

Additional action may be required to demonstrate that the s’chach was deliberately placed for the mitzvah.

 

Halachot 13–16 – Mixing Valid and Invalid S’chach

When kosher and non-kosher materials are mixed:

The details become crucial.

Important principles include:

• Majority kosher material
• Separation of materials
• Size of invalid areas
• Position of invalid areas

 

Dofen Akumah

One of the major principles introduced here.

When invalid roofing is near a wall:

Up to four cubits may be treated as an extension of the wall itself.

This is:

Dofen Akumah (“a bent wall”)

a tradition dating back to Sinai.

 

Halachah 17 – Decorations

Decorations hanging beneath the s’chach:

✅ Permitted if decorative.

Examples:

• Fruit
• Ornaments
• Food displays

However:

Cloths spread beneath the s’chach to catch leaves:

❌ Invalid.

 

Halachah 18 – Decorative Limits

Decorations hanging too far beneath the s’chach can become problematic.

If significantly separated from the roof, a person appears to be sitting under the decoration rather than under the s’chach itself.

 

Halachot 19–21 – Shade versus Sunlight

This is one of the central laws of s’chach.

Required

The shade must exceed the sunlight.

✅ More shade than sun = kosher.

❌ Equal or more sunlight = invalid.

 

Ideal S’chach

The Rambam says the preferred practice is:

Thin enough that large stars remain visible.

Yet:

Even very thick s’chach is kosher if the shade requirements are met.

 

Halachah 22 – Sukkah on Top of a Sukkah

A sukkah built above another sukkah creates:

Upper Sukkah

✅ Kosher.

Lower Sukkah

Usually invalid.

Because the upper sukkah serves as its roof.

Certain exceptions apply when the upper structure lacks sufficient independent status.

 

Halachot 23–24 – Canopies Inside a Sukkah

A canopy can create:

A sukkah within a sukkah.

If the canopy:

• Has a roof
• Is sufficiently high

then:

❌ One does not fulfill the mitzvah beneath it.

Small or roofless canopies generally do not create this problem.

Halachah 25 – Borrowed and Stolen Sukkot

Borrowed Sukkah

✅ Fully valid.

Stolen Sukkah

The Rambam surprisingly rules:

✅ One fulfills the mitzvah after the fact.

His reasoning:

• Land itself cannot be stolen.
• The owner retains ownership of the land.
• Certain stolen building materials become subject only to monetary restitution.

 

Public Property

A sukkah built in the public domain:

✅ Valid according to the Rambam.

 

✅ Core Idea of Chapter 5

Chapter 5 teaches that the essence of a sukkah is its s’chach. The roofing must be natural, detached from the ground, free from ritual impurity, and deliberately placed to create shade. Many of the chapter’s laws revolve around preserving that identity so the sukkah remains a temporary dwelling under heaven rather than a regular roofed structure.

 

✅ Main Principle

The defining feature of a sukkah is not its walls but its s’chach. Valid s’chach must be natural vegetation detached from the ground and unsuitable for ritual impurity, providing more shade than sunlight and serving as a roof made specifically for shade rather than for permanent habitation.