We mentioned that the sukkah cannot be higher than twenty amot (about 30 feet). What if one's sukkah is higher than that, and he decides to pile pillows and blankets on the floor? Unfortunately, we tell him that it does not help because he plans to remove them later, and so they are regarded as non-existent even now. What if he says, “I abandon these pillows here, for the seven days of the holiday?” - No use either because most people would not do such a thing, and his decision is nullified by the rest of the world's opinions. However, if he puts straw and abandons it, or better yet, he spreads dirt – this helps, and his sukkah becomes valid.
If he puts up a platform inside his sukkah, it also helps to reduce the height. He does not even have to put it right next to the walls; he can distance the platform up to 4 amot (6 feet) from each wall, and it will still be valid because we will regard each wall as a “bent wall,” ("dofen akumah"), one that first goes up, then bends horizontally, transforms itself into a roof, and remains a valid legal partition.
A sukkah that is too low can be fixed by digging the floor. Here, however, he needs to dig all the way, almost next to the walls, and not four amot from them as he did above, because the concept of “bent wall” only applies to bending the roof, not bending the floor.
Art: Cottage with Woman Digging By Vincent Van Gogh
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