Sukkah, Daf Mem Aleph, Part Two
Introduction
Today’s section begins with a mishnah. My commentary on the mishnah itself is from Mishnah Yomit.
Leviticus 23:40 reads, On the first day you shall take…and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. The beginning of the verse states on the first day and the end of the verse says, seven days. From here the rabbis derived that the mitzvah of taking the lulav is for a different amount of time in different places. They read the second half of the verse as applying to the Temple, before the Lord your God. Hence, the lulav should be taken up for seven days in the Temple. Outside of the Temple, or according to other commentaries, outside of Jerusalem, the lulav need be taken for only one day.
משנה. בראשונה היה לולב ניטל במקדש שבעה, ובמדינה יום אחד. משחרב בית המקדש התקין רבן יוחנן בן זכאי שיהא לולב ניטל במדינה שבעה, זכר למקדש. ושיהא יום הנף כולו אסור.
In earlier times the lulav was taken for seven days in the Temple, and in the provinces for one day only.
When the temple was destroyed, Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai decreed that the lulav should be taken in the provinces for seven days in memory of the Temple,
[He also decreed] that on the whole of the day of waving it be forbidden [to eat the new produce].
When the Temple still stood the lulav was taken in the Temple (or in Jerusalem) for seven days and outside of the Temple for only one day, as explained in the introduction.
However, when the Temple was destroyed, there was a problem. If people only observed the commandment for one day, they would soon forget that originally the commandment was observed for seven days, at least in some places. Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai, one of the leading rabbinic figures after the destruction of the Temple, decreed therefore that the lulav should be taken up for seven days in all places, in memory of the Temple.
Section three: Having related one of the decrees that Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai made after the destruction of the Temple, the mishnah now relates another, similar decree. We need to note a little bit of background to understand this. On the second day of Pesah, when the Temple still stood, the Omer offering of barley was harvested and brought to the Temple and waved by a priest. After this day, it was permitted to eat from the new grain harvest (see Leviticus 23:9-14). Since people outside of Jerusalem would not know precisely when the Omer had been offered, they would wait at least half of the day before they would eat from the new harvest. When the Temple was destroyed and they could no longer offer the Omer, the rabbis derived from the Torah that the new produce could be eaten as soon as the second day of Pesah began. In other words, without an Omer sacrifice the day itself allowed the new harvest. Again, Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai perceived a problem. If people would eat from the new harvest immediately on the 16th of Nissan, when the Temple is rebuilt they would forget that they need to wait until the Omer is offered. Therefore he decreed that the new produce could not be eaten for the entire day.
It is interesting to note that the rabbis who lived close to the destruction of the Temple believed that it would speedily be rebuilt. Just as they began working on the rebuilding of the First Temple only 70 years after its destruction, rabbis who lived in the first and early second century probably assumed that their Temple would also be rebuilt in a short time. However, after the Bar Kokhba revolt was crushed (135 C.E.), it probably began to dawn on many that the realistic chances of the Temple being speedily rebuilt were not good. The hopes of course never died, but this type of legislative activity making decrees lest the Temple be rebuilt quickly, were more characteristic of the pre Bar Kokhba period.
גמרא. מנא לן דעבדינן זכר למקדש? אמר רבי יוחנן: דאמר קרא +ירמיהו ל+ כי אעלה ארכה לך וממכותיך ארפאך נאם ה’ כי נדחה קראו לך ציון היא דרש אין לה, דרש אין לה – מכלל דבעיא דרישה.
From where do we know that we must perform [ceremonies] in memory of the Temple?
R. Yohanan said: Since Scripture says, "For I will restore health to you, and I will heal you of your wounds, says the Lord, Because they have called you an outcast. She is Zion, there is none that seek for her" (Jeremiah 30:17). There is none that see for her,’ implies that she should be sought.
R. Yohanan (the amora, not the tanna of the Mishnah) seeks a source for the notion that we should act religiously in such a way that we remember the Temple. He locates it in a verse from Jeremiah where the prophet laments that there are none who "seek Zion." The fact that Jeremiah laments this situation implies that there is a need to "seek Zion" which R. Yohanan ben Zakai accomplished by enacting ceremonies to remember how things were done in the Temple.