If one was building a house, put up the roof but did not plaster it, can he use it for his sukkah? - Yes, but he should undo the nails, move the boards slightly, and take out every second board from the roof. Why so strict? - Firstly, he has not built it for the sukkah, and the requirement is that he should make it for the Holiday and not use something already there. Now it should be kosher, but if we allowed that, people might eventually come to use their houses as a sukkah, and so to prevent this, we require him to remove every second board. All this is the opinion of Beit Shammai. However, Beit Hillel School is not concerned that people may use their houses as sukkahs, and they do not require taking out the boards. Practical law is even more complex because Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehudah have different versions of what Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel were arguing about.
If one covers his sukkah with metal kebab spits, they are invalid for many reasons: they are utensils and are thus susceptible to ritual impurity, and they don't grow from the ground. Both conditions are necessary for the proper sukkah covering (s'chach). However, if there are spaces equal to the thickness of the spits and he puts proper s'chach there, it becomes valid.
Can we deduce a principle from here that exactly half of valid s'chach makes the sukkah valid, and in general, exactly half of the permitted matter (such as in eruv) makes all permissible? - Maybe not; perhaps here he left a little more space between the spits than their thickness, so we cannot derive anything from this case.
Art: Kalevipoeg Carrying the Boards By Oskar Kallis
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