and they each said: Take them up to the sukka.

And when they gave Rabbi Tzadok less than an egg-bulk of food, he took the food in a cloth and he ate it outside the sukka and did not recite a blessing after eating it. The Gemara infers: Had they given him an egg-bulk of food, he would have been required to eat it in a sukka. Let us say that this is a conclusive refutation of the opinion of Rav Yosef and Abaye, who said that one is permitted to eat that measure in the context of a casual meal outside the sukka. The Gemara answers: No proof can be cited from here, because perhaps the reason the mishna emphasizes that Rabbi Tzadok ate less than an egg-bulk of food is that eating less than an egg-bulk does not require washing hands and reciting a blessing after eating it; however, eating an egg-bulk requires washing and reciting a blessing.

MISHNA: Rabbi Eliezer says: A person is obligated to eat fourteen meals in the sukka over the course of the seven days of the festival of Sukkot, one during the day each day and one at night each night. And the Rabbis say: There is no quota for the number of meals, and one may choose whether or not to eat any of the meals except for the meal on the evening of the first Festival day of Sukkot, which one is required to eat in the sukka.

And furthermore, Rabbi Eliezer said: One who did not eat a meal on the evening of the first day of the Festival should compensate with a meal on the evening of the last day of the Festival, on the Eighth Day of Assembly, despite the fact that he will not eat it in the sukka. And the Rabbis say: There is no compensation for this matter, and with regard to similar cases where it is impossible to rectify failure to fulfill a positive mitzva, it is stated: “That which is crooked cannot be made straight; and that which is wanting cannot be numbered” (Ecclesiastes 1:15).

GEMARA: The Gemara asks: What is the rationale for the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer, who mandates eating fourteen meals in the sukka? The Gemara answers that he derives his opinion from the verse: “In sukkot shall you reside” (Leviticus 23:42), which the Sages interpreted to mean: Reside as you dwell in your permanent home. Therefore, just as in one’s dwelling one typically eats one meal during the day and one meal at night, so too, in a sukka one eats one meal during the day and one meal at night.

The Gemara asks: And how do the Rabbis interpret that verse? The Gemara answers: They explain that a sukka is like a permanent dwelling. Just as in one’s dwelling, if one desires to eat, he eats, and if one does not desire to do so, he does not eat, so too, in the sukka, if one desires to eat, he eats, and if one does not desire to do so, he does not eat.

The Gemara asks: If so, then according to the Rabbis, even on the first Festival evening as well one should not be required to eat in the sukka.

Rabbi Yoḥanan said in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yehotzadak: There is a verbal analogy between the festivals of Passover and Sukkot. It is stated here, with regard to Sukkot: “On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the festival of Sukkot for seven days unto the Lord” (Leviticus 23:34). And it is stated: “And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the festival of matzot unto the Lord” (Leviticus 23:6) with regard to the festival of Passover. Just as there, with regard to Passover, on the first night there is an obligation to eat matza and from that point onward it is optional, as from that point onward the only obligation is to refrain from eating leaven, so too here, with regard to Sukkot, on the first night there is an obligation to eat in the sukka and from that point onward it is optional.

The Gemara asks: And there, with regard to Passover, from where do we derive that there is an obligation to eat matza on the first night? The Gemara answers that the verse says: “In the evening you shall eat matzot” (Exodus 12:18). The verse established it as an obligation.

§ The mishna continues: And furthermore, Rabbi Eliezer said that one who did not eat a meal on the evening of the first day of the Festival should compensate with a meal on the evening of the last day of the Festival. The Gemara asks: But didn’t Rabbi Eliezer say that a person is obligated to eat fourteen meals in the sukka, one during the day and one at night? However, the compensatory meal on the evening of the Eighth Day of Assembly is not eaten in the sukka. Beira said that Rabbi Ami said: Rabbi Eliezer retracted his previous statement and agrees with the Rabbis that there is no quota for the meals that one must eat in the sukka, and it is only the meal on the first evening of the Festival that one must eat in the sukka. Their dispute is with regard to compensation if one failed to eat the meal on the first evening.

The Gemara asks: With what will he compensate for his failure to eat the Festival meal? If we say that he compensates with bread, he is thereby eating the festive meal of that Eighth Day of Assembly; how is it obvious that it is compensation for a different meal? Rather, what is the meaning of: He should compensate? It means that he should compensate by adding types of delicacies [targima]. That is taught in a baraita as well: If he compensated by adding types of delicacies, he fulfilled his obligation.

The steward [apotropos] of King Agrippas asked Rabbi Eliezer: For someone like me, who is accustomed to eat only one meal a day, what is the halakha? Is it sufficient that I eat one meal and exempt myself from the obligation to eat any more that day? Rabbi Eliezer said to him: Each day you continue eating and taste various kinds of appetizers in deference to your own desires, and now you do not continue eating even one appetizer in deference to your Maker?

And the steward further asked Rabbi Eliezer: For someone like me, who has two wives, one in Tiberias and one in Tzippori, and has two sukkot, one in Tiberias and one in Tzippori, what is the halakha? Can I depart from one sukka to another sukka and exempt myself from the obligation? In other words, is it permitted to fulfill the mitzva in one sukka for part of Sukkot and in another for the rest of the Festival? Rabbi Eliezer said to him: No, as I say that anyone who departs from one sukka to another sukka has negated the mitzva of the first. The obligation is to reside in the same sukka for all seven days.

It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Eliezer says: