Introduction
Today’s section interprets the section of the mishnah that allows one to use lulavim that grow on the "Iron Mountain" (which is also identified in our sugya). Evidently these lulavim have poor leaves and therefore there is a question as to their usability.
ציני הר הברזל כשרה. אמר אביי: לא שנו אלא שראשו של זה מגיע לצד עיקרו של זה, אבל אין ראשו של זה מגיע לצד עיקרו של זה – פסול.
תניא נמי הכי: ציני הר הברזל פסולה.
והא אנן תנן כשרה! אלא שמע מינה כאביי, שמע מינה.
"The thorny palms of the Iron Mountain are valid."
Abaye said: They taught this only when the top of one [leaf] reaches the junction of the next, but if the top of the one does not reach the junction of the next, it is invalid.
It was also taught: The thorny palms of the Iron Mountain are invalid.
But have we not learned that they are valid? Rather deduce from this like the teaching of Abaye. Deduce from this.
The mishnah allows one to use the thorny palms from the Iron Mountain for a lulav. Abaye restricts this ruling to a case where the top of one palm leaf reaches the junction of the next leaf. But if there are so few leaves that the top of one doesn’t reach the next leaf, the palm branch cannot be used as a lulav.
Abaye’s ruling also aids in solving a contradiction between a baraita which forbids using these palm branches and the mishnah which permits using. Abaye clarifies that when the leaves don’t reach the next, they cannot be used (baraita), but when they do reach the next leaf they can be used (mishnah).
ואיכא דרמי ליה מירמא. תנן: ציני הר הברזל כשר, והתניא: פסולה! אמר אביי: לא קשיא: כאן – שראשו של זה מגיע לצד עיקרו של זה, כאן – שאין ראשו של זה מגיע לצד עיקרו של זה. אמר
There are those who cast one [source] against the other: We have learnt: the thorn-palms of the Iron Mountain are valid.
But has it not been taught that they are invalid?
Abaye answered, There is no difficulty: The one refers to where the top of the one leaf reaches the junction of the next; the other to where the top of the one does not reach the junction of the other.
This section is merely a different way of ordering the previous one. As far as content goes, they are identical.
רבי מריון אמר רבי יהושע בן לוי, ואמרי לה תני רבה בר מרי משום רבן יוחנן בן זכאי: שתי תמרות יש בגיא בן הנם ועולה עשן מביניהם, וזהו ששנינו ציני הר הברזל כשרות, וזו היא פתחה של גיהנם.
R. Marion said in the name of R. Joshua b. Levi, and others say that Rabbah b. Mari taught in the name of R. Yohanan b. Zakkai: There are two palms in the valley of Hinnom, and smoke goes up between them, and it is in that connection that we have learned the thorn-palms of the Iron Mountain are valid, and it is the entrance to Gehenna.
R. Marion (or some other sage) identifies the "thorn palms of the Iron Mountain." In Jerusalem, on the western side of Mt. Zion is the Hinnom Valley, in Hebrew "Gehinnom." This is the valley that is today between the Cinemateque theater and Mt. Zion. In the Bible we find that child sacrifice occurred here (II Chronicles 28:3, 33:6), and therefore it was considered to be a cursed place. It appears already in the Mishnah as the bad place where the wicked receive their punishment (see Kiddushin 4:14, Avot 1:5, 5:19-20). In a later period, Gehenna came to be synonymous with hell.