The Mishnah on Dwelling in Booths

1:1. A sukkah that is higher than twenty cubits is invalid. R. Judah deems it valid. And one that is not [at least] ten cubits high, or does not have three sides, or [whose interior] is more in the sun than shaded is invalid. An old sukkah: Beth Shammai deems it invalid, while Beth Hillel deems it valid. And what is [deemed to be] an old sukkah? One that was constructed more than thirty days prior to the festival. But if it was made for the sake of the festival, even from the beginning of the year [i.e., even immediately after Sukkot of the previous year], it is valid.

2. One who builds his sukkah under a tree: it is as if he built it inside a house. A sukkah built on top of another sukkah: the upper one is valid, but the lower one is invalid. R. Judah says: If there are no occupants in the upper one, the lower one is valid.

3. If one spread a sheet over it because of the sun, or below it because of droppings, or if he spread it over a four-poster bed frame, it is invalid. But he may spread it over a two-poster bed frame. [ . . . ]

6. One may use boards for sukkah roofing—the words of R. Judah. But R. Meir says: One may not use them for sukkah roofing [because they are too solid, like a ceiling]. If one put over it [the sukkah] a board that is four handbreadths wide, it is valid as long as he does not sleep under it.

2:1. One who sleeps under a bed in the sukkah has not fulfilled his obligation. Said R. Judah: We customarily slept under a bed in the presence of the elders, and they said nothing to us.

Said R. Simeon: It once happened that Tavi, the servant of Rabban Gamaliel, was sleeping under a bed [in the sukkah], and Rabban Gamaliel said to the elders, “Have you seen how learned is my servant Tavi, who knows that servants are exempt from [the obligation of dwelling in a] sukkah? That is why he is sleeping under the bed.” Accordingly, we have learned that one who sleeps under a bed [in the sukkah] has not fulfilled his obligation. [ . . . ]

6. R. Eliezer says: A person must eat fourteen meals in the sukkah: one during the day and one during the evening [for seven days].

And sages say: There is no prescribed number, except for the eve of the first day [of the festival].

R. Eliezer also said: Whoever did not eat [in the sukkah] on the eve of the first day may make it up on the eve of the last day.

But sages say: The matter has no compensation. Concerning this was it said: A twisted thing cannot be made straight; a lack cannot be made good (Ecclesiastes 1:15). [ . . . ]

9. All seven days [of the festival], a man makes his sukkah his permanent abode and his house his occasional abode. If rains came down, at what point is it permitted to clear [the sukkah]? At the point when the porridge would be spoiled [from the rain]. They gave a similitude to what the matter may be compared: This is like a servant who went to mix a cup [of wine] for his master and [his master] emptied the pitcher in his [the servant’s] face.