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ezra
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I haven't found anything specific about hiding, but we have two-story houses in Israel from the time of the first temple, and no reason to believe this construction fell out of practice by the time of the mishna. The Harvard Semitic Museum has an exhibit on houses of ancient Israel that shows a reconstruction of such a house -- livestock on the first floor, space for people on the second.

An uncited tamudic story in this post describes Rabbi Yehoshua helping a visitor up the ladder to his loft to sleep.

Looking to the Tanakh itself, we know that Yiftach was expecting an animal to come out of "his house" (related, and that the Shunamite woman made an upper-story room for Elisha. If

If we're willing to consider another religion's texts for historical reference (obviously not religious), they have Jesus having a meal in an "upper room" of somebody's house.

I would reason (no sources) that the concern about hiding expressed in the commentary isn't about the first floor versus the second floor, but rather is about the beit midrash (public space) versus someone's house. And if you're going to be in someone's house, you naturally want to be somewhere comfortable -- and maybe not in the middle of regular household activity, if you're there to study torah or make halachic decisions. An upper story sounds perfect for that.

I haven't found anything specific about hiding, but we have two-story houses in Israel from the time of the first temple, and no reason to believe this construction fell out of practice by the time of the mishna. The Harvard Semitic Museum has an exhibit on houses of ancient Israel that shows a reconstruction of such a house -- livestock on the first floor, space for people on the second.

An uncited tamudic story in this post describes Rabbi Yehoshua helping a visitor up the ladder to his loft to sleep.

Looking to the Tanakh itself, we know that Yiftach was expecting an animal to come out of "his house" (related, and that the Shunamite woman made an upper-story room for Elisha. If we're willing to consider another religion's texts for historical reference (obviously not religious), they have Jesus having a meal in an "upper room" of somebody's house.

I would reason (no sources) that the concern about hiding expressed in the commentary isn't about the first floor versus the second floor, but rather is about the beit midrash (public space) versus someone's house. And if you're going to be in someone's house, you naturally want to be somewhere comfortable -- and maybe not in the middle of regular household activity, if you're there to study torah or make halachic decisions. An upper story sounds perfect for that.

I haven't found anything specific about hiding, but we have two-story houses in Israel from the time of the first temple, and no reason to believe this construction fell out of practice by the time of the mishna. The Harvard Semitic Museum has an exhibit on houses of ancient Israel that shows a reconstruction of such a house -- livestock on the first floor, space for people on the second.

An uncited tamudic story in this post describes Rabbi Yehoshua helping a visitor up the ladder to his loft to sleep.

Looking to the Tanakh itself, we know that Yiftach was expecting an animal to come out of "his house" (related, and that the Shunamite woman made an upper-story room for Elisha.

If we're willing to consider another religion's texts for historical reference (obviously not religious), they have Jesus having a meal in an "upper room" of somebody's house.

I would reason (no sources) that the concern about hiding expressed in the commentary isn't about the first floor versus the second floor, but rather is about the beit midrash (public space) versus someone's house. And if you're going to be in someone's house, you naturally want to be somewhere comfortable -- and maybe not in the middle of regular household activity, if you're there to study torah or make halachic decisions. An upper story sounds perfect for that.

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Monica Cellio
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I haven't found anything specific about hiding, but we have two-story houses in Israel from the time of the first temple, and no reason to believe this construction fell out of practice by the time of the mishna. The Harvard Semitic Museum has an exhibit on houses of ancient Israel that shows a reconstruction of such a house -- livestock on the first floor, space for people on the second.

An uncited tamudic story in this post describes Rabbi Yehoshua helping a visitor up the ladder to his loft to sleep.

Looking to the Tanakh itself, we know that Yiftach was expecting an animal to come out of "his house" (related, and that the Shunamite woman made an upper-story room for Elisha. If we're willing to consider another religion's texts for historical reference (obviously not religious), they have Jesus having a meal in an "upper room" of somebody's house.

I would reason (no sources) that the concern about hiding expressed in the commentary isn't about the first floor versus the second floor, but rather is about the beit midrash (public space) versus someone's house. And if you're going to be in someone's house, you naturally want to be somewhere comfortable -- and maybe not in the middle of regular household activity, if you're there to study torah or make halachic decisions. An upper story sounds perfect for that.