Sukkah, Daf Mem Aleph, Part Four
Introduction
Today’s section is from the Mishnah.
Today we don t take the lulav on Shabbat. However, in the time of the Mishnah if the first day of the festival fell on Shabbat, they would take the lulav, because as we learned in mishnah twelve, the taking of the lulav on the first day of Sukkot is mandatory even outside of the Temple. The mishnah teaches how they avoided the problem of carrying the lulav to the synagogue on Shabbat, which is clearly a transgression.
1) משנה. יום טוב הראשון של חג שחל להיות בשבת, כל העם מוליכין את לולביהן לבית הכנסת.
2) למחרת משכימין ובאין, כל אחד ואחד מכיר את שלו ונוטלו, מפני שאמרו חכמים: אין אדם יוצא ידי חובתו ביום טוב הראשון בלולבו של חבירו,
3) ושאר ימות החג, אדם יוצא ידי חובתו בלולבו של חבירו.
4) רבי יוסי אומר: יום טוב הראשון של חג שחל להיות בשבת, ושכח והוציא את הלולב לרשות הרבים – פטור, מפני שהוציאו ברשות.
1) If the first day of the festival falls on Shabbat, all the people bring their lulavim to the synagogue [on Friday].
2) The next day they arise early [and come to the synagogue] and each one recognizes his own [lulav] and takes it, since the sages said one cannot fulfill his obligation on the first day of the festival with his friend s lulav.
3) But on the other days of the festival one may fulfill his obligation with the lulav of his fellow.
4) Rabbi Yose says: if the first day of the festival fell on Shabbat, and he forgot and carried out his lulav into the public domain, he is not liable, since he brought it out while under the influence [of a religious act].
Section one: In order to avoid the problem of carrying on Shabbat, the people would bring their lulavim to the synagogue on Friday and leave them there for the next day.
Section two: The only problem with this is that a person needs to use his own lulav on the first day of the festival, because the Torah says and you shall take for yourselves on the first day understood to mean that the lulav must belong to the person taking it. If all of the lulavim were heaped together in the synagogue a person might not know which lulav is his own. Therefore the mishnah says that everyone must be able to recognize his own lulav.
Section three: The verse which implies that the lulav must belong to the person taking it refers only to the first day of the festival. After this day a person may fulfill his obligation with someone else s lulav. The result is that if Shabbat falls on another day of the festival, not on the first day, they need not recognize which lulav belongs to them. They therefore would bring their lulav to the synagogue on Friday but they wouldn’t have to worry about recognizing their own lulav.
Section four: According to Rabbi Yose, since a person is supposed to take the lulav on Shabbat if it is also the first day of the festival, he is not obligated if he mistakenly carries it out into the public domain. In other words, since he was allowed to take it in the first place, he is excused for making the mistake of carrying it outside. However, if he did this on another day of the festival, meaning if another day of the festival fell on Shabbat, he would be liable since he should not have taken it at all.
Finally, we should note that if he carries it outside into the public domain on Shabbat intentionally he is always liable, whether on the first day or on any other day.