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כי אתא רבין אמר ר' יוחנן אמר קרא "באספך מגרנך ומיקבך"
בפסולת גורן ויקב הכתוב מדבר

Ravin ... said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said that the verse states: “You shall prepare for you the festival of Sukkot for seven days as you gather from your threshing floor and from your winepress” (Deuteronomy 16:13), and the Sages interpreted that it is with regard to the waste of the threshing floor and of the winepress that the verse is speaking. (Succah 12a)

This seems disrespectful because of two reasons:

דתניא "זה אלי ואנוהו" - התנאה לפניו במצות עשה לפניו סוכה נאה ולולב נאה וכו'

it was taught in a Baraita with regard to the verse: “This is my God and I will glorify Him...” - Beautify yourself before Him in mitzvot. [Even if one fulfills the mitzva by performing it simply, it is nonetheless proper to perform the mitzva as beautifully as possible.] Make before Him a beautiful sukkah, a beautiful lulav, etc (Shabbos 133b ).

  1. As the remembrance of Ananei Kavod (R"E's opinion in Succah 11b)

How that can be reconciled?

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    One man's trash is another's treasure. Why should waste from a food production facility not be beautiful construction materials? – Double AA♦ Sep 8 at 0:49
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I think you're misinterpreting the waste of the threshing floor and of the winepress.

It's not referring to the left-over chaff and wine peels! If nothing else because they are unfit to cover a Sukka - the chaff would blow away and the wine peels would rot (assuming they're not already Mekabel Tumah, which they are from the moment they get wet).

It's referring to the straw and hay of the threshing floor and the bare vines once all the grapes have been plucked off them.

I was wondering how hard it would be to find a source for the above, but it's actually Rashi:

פסולת גורן - קשין:‏

פסולת יקב - זמורות ואשכולות ריקנים:‏

Nothing disrespectful about using aromatic vines and hay - that's what Schach is all about; a temporary roof to recall the temporary dwelling or the flimsy clouds that protected us in the desert.

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  • Thank you, the source is right, however, the very use of the word "waste" implies of its lack of respect to Succah. Taking left-overs, no matter how useful, I don't consider ואנוהו, do you? – Al Berko Sep 9 at 12:20
  • the word פסולת does not mean waste, but leftovers or next-in-line or second-best. See sefaria.org.il/search?q=%D7%A4%D7%A1%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%AA for some samples. אַבְרָהָם יָצָא מִמֶּנּוּ פְּסֹלֶת, יִשְׁמָעֵאל וְכָל בְּנֵי קְטוּרָה. אוכל מתוך פסולת אסור - these aren't waste or garbage, but things we don;t want now, as we have better ones. (In Schach we used the non-Psolet as food.) – Danny Schoemann Sep 11 at 7:46
  • how about Etrog next in line or leftovers? אנוהו means the best - agreed, surely not leftovers, even Kosher ones. I don't argue it's Kosher. Interestingly, פסול לך שני לחות means take the stone tablets and throw out the waste (engraving means removing unneeded פסולת). – Al Berko Sep 11 at 12:28
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That opinion in the gemara isn't telling us that a Sukkah "deserves" to be made out of waste; rather said drasha is being used to teach us the nature of what can serve as s'chach for a Sukkah. Namely, something that:
- a) grows from the ground
- b) isn't mekabel tumah

This isn't in conflict with the gemara you quote (Shabbos 133b) re: "zeh keili v'anveyhu."

  • Sukkah 12a ESTABLISHES the particular details of this mitzvah (ie qualifications for kosher s'chach)
  • whereas Shabbos 133b EXPANDS on an already established principle of a particular mitzvah (ex: now that we've established that s'chach needs to fit the stated requirements, let's figure out how to get "beautiful s'chach").
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