Sukkah, Daf Lammed Het, Part 1

 

Introduction

This week’s daf begins with a new mishnah.

 

משנה. מי שבא בדרך ולא היה בידו לולב ליטול – לכשיכנס לביתו יטול על שלחנו. לא נטל שחרית – יטול בין הערבים, שכל היום כשר ללולב.

 

One who was on a journey and had no lulav to take, when he enters his house he should take it [even if he is] at his table.

If he did not take the lulav in the morning, he should take it at any time before dusk, since the whole day is valid for [taking] the lulav.

 

It is preferable to take up the lulav first thing in the morning before one eats. This is usually done today during the morning prayer service, right before Hallel. However, one can fulfill the mitzvah any time during the day. If one is returning from a trip and he didn t have a lulav with him, he should take one as soon as he gets into his house. Even if he is in the middle of a meal and then remembers that he hasn t performed the mitzvah of taking the lulav, he should put aside his meal and take the lulav. One can perform the mitzvah all the way through dusk.

 

גמרא. אמרת: נוטלו על שלחנו, למימרא – דמפסיק. ורמינהו: אם התחילו – אין מפסיקין! – אמר רב ספרא: לא קשיא: הא – דאיכא שהות ביום, הא – דליכא שהות ביום.

אמר רבא: מאי קושיא דילמא הא דאורייתא הא דרבנן. 

 

GEMARA. You said that he should take it [even if he is] at his table. That is to say that he must interrupt [his meal]. But there is a contraction: If they have begun they need not interrupt [it]?

R. Safra replied: There is no contradiction: There is refers to where there is still time [to perform the commandment] during the day, while the former refers to where there is [otherwise] no time.

Rava said: What difficulty is this? Perhaps one is a Torah commandment and one is a rabbinical obligation?

 

The mishnah says that when he comes home from his trip he should immediately take up his lulav, even if this means interrupting a meal. However, this contradicts a different baraita which states that if one starts a meal before he has prayed the minhah prayer, he need not interrupt his meal. He can finish eating and then complete minhah. The difficulty is that one source says that if one is in the middle of the meal and realizes he has not yet performed a mitzvah, he must stop and perform the mitzvah, whereas the other source says that one need not stop. He can perform the mitzvah after.

R. Safra offers the first resolution to the contradiction. If there will be time during the day to take up his lulav or say minhah after he is done his meal, then he need not interrupt his meal. But if the day will be done before he finishes his meal, he better take up his lulav or say minhah before the day is over, otherwise he will have missed the opportunity to perform a mitzvah.

Rava rejects this, saying it’s really not a difficulty at all. The obligation to take the lulav is from the Torah, deorayta. Therefore, one would have to interrupt his meal to take up the lulav. But the obligation to recite minhah is considered derabanan, from the rabbis. Therefore, if one begins his meal before reciting minhah, he need not interrupt in order to recite it.

 

אלא אמר רבא: אי קשיא – הא קשיא: לכשיכנס לביתו נוטלו על שלחנו, אלמא דמפסיק. והדר תני: לא נטל שחרית – יטול בין הערבים, אלמא: לא מפסיק! – אמר רב ספרא: לא קשיא: הא – דאיכא שהות ביום, הא – דליכא שהות ביום.

 

Rather Rava said: If there is a difficulty, it is this: He should take it when he comes home [even if he is] at his table therefore he must interrupt [his meal]. And then it teaches: If he did not take it during the morning he should take it at any time before dusk therefore he need not interrupt [his meal].

[To this] R. Safra said: There is no difficulty: The latter refers to where there is still time during the day, the former where there is [otherwise] no time.

 

Rava maintains R. Safra’s resolution but says that it was stated over an internal contradiction in the mishnah. The first clause states that he should interrupt his meal to take his lulav, whereas the second is read by Rava as implying that he need not interrupt his meal. Since these are both the same mitzvah, taking the lulav, we cannot resolve the difficulty the way we did above. Therefore R. Safra answers that it depends on whether he will have time after his meal to take up the lulav.

 

אמר רבי זירא: מאי קושיא? דלמא מצוה לאפסוקי, ואי לא פסיק – יטול בין הערבים, שכל היום כשר ללולב.

 

R. Zera said: What difficulty is this? Perhaps it is a mitzvah to interrupt [one’s meal for the purpose of taking the lulav] but if he did not interrupt it he should take [the lulab] at any time before dusk, since the whole day is valid for the taking of the lulav?

 

R. Zera says that the mishnah also does not contradict itself. The first clause of the mishnah states that it is preferable to take the lulav before one starts his meal. The second clause says that if one does not, he has not missed the opportunity to take the lulav, because the whole day is kosher for taking the lulav.

 

אלא אמר רבי זירא: לעולם כדאמרינן מעיקרא, ודקשיא לך הא דאורייתא הא דרבנן – הכא ביום טוב שני דרבנן, עסקינן. דיקא נמי, מדקתני: מי שבא בדרך ואין בידו לולב, דאי סלקא דעתך ביום טוב ראשון – מי שרי?

 

Rather said R. Zera: [The difficulty] is indeed is as we said previously; and with regard to your difficulty one is from the Torah and one is from the rabbis, here we are dealing with the second day of the Festival when [the obligation of taking the lulav on] which is only Rabbinical.

And this can also be learned from a precise reading of the mishnah which teaches: One who was on a journey and had no lulav to take. If you thought this referred to the first day of the Festival, is it permitted [to travel on that day]?

 

R. Zera restores the original difficulty between the mishnah about the lulav and the source concerning minhah. Rava had said this was not a good difficulty because lulav is from the Torah and reciting the minhah prayer is only from the rabbis. To this R. Zera responds that the mishnah refers to the subsequent days of Sukkot, not the first day, when taking the lulav is only derabanan.

He also proves that the mishnah refers to the subsequent days by noting that it refers to a person who comes back from a trip. Since one would not be allowed to travel on Yom Tov, the first day of Sukkot, this mishnah cannot refer to the first day of Sukkot.