Hi, my understanding of the gemara is that the ten tefachim mentioned on 5a are not literal. (Moshe was 10 amos tall, Har Sinai was way above ten tefachim etc) If so then how can the Gemara learn from a non-literal agadata to hilchos sukkah?
thank you
Aaron , Ramat Bet Shemesh, Israel
While there are some commentaries who learn this Gemara in a non-literal fashion (see the ha'Kosev and Gaon Yakov on Ein Yakov), Rashi (DH "v'Tanya") and the Iyun Yakov seem to learn this is literal. I don't see any question from Moshe being ten Amos tall, as the only thing that the Gemara establishes is that the Kisei ha'Kavod did not appear to him less than ten Tefachim from the ground. It might have appeared to him much higher than ten Tefachim (it just did not go below ten Tefachim). Additionally, the ten Tefachim would obviously start at the surface of Har Sinai, not on the ground below, just as someone who would build a Sukah wall of nine Tefachim on Har Sinai would not have a kosher Sukah. [See Rashi ibid. that the main proof is from the fact that the Shechinah came down right above the Kapores, which was ten Tefachim from the ground.]
All the best,
Yaakov Montrose