Sukkah, Daf Mem Aleph, Part 5

 

Introduction

Today’s section provides scriptural support for the halakhah mandating that one must own one’s lulav.

 

גמרא. מנא הני מילי? דתנו רבנן: +ויקרא כג+ ולקחתם – שתהא לקיחה ביד כל אחד ואחד. לכם – משלכם, להוציא את השאול ואת הגזול. מכאן אמרו חכמים: אין אדם יוצא ידי חובתו ביום טוב הראשון של חג בלולבו של חבירו, אלא אם כן נתנו לו במתנה.

 

From where do we know this? From what our Rabbis have taught, "And you shall take" [implying] that there should be a "taking" in the hand of each individual. "For yourself" implies that it should be yours, excluding a borrowed or a stolen [lulav]. From this verse the Sages deduced that one cannot fulfill his obligation on the first day of the Festival with the lulav of his fellow, unless the latter gave it to him as a gift.

 

The words, "And you shall take for yourselves" from Leviticus 23:40 are interpreted by the rabbis to mean that every Jew must take the lulav in his hand and that each must own his own lulav. The lulav cannot be borrowed or stolen, as we learned in the beginning of this chapter. However, one can give the lulav to his friend as a gift. This will be illustrated in the following story.

ומעשה ברבן גמליאל ורבי יהושע ורבי אלעזר בן עזריה ורבי עקיבא, שהיו באין בספינה, ולא היה לולב אלא לרבן גמליאל בלבד, שלקחו באלף זוז. נטלו רבן גמליאל ויצא בו, ונתנו לרבי יהושע במתנה, נטלו רבי יהושע ויצא בו, ונתנו לרבי אלעזר בן עזריה במתנה, נטלו רבי אלעזר בן עזריה ויצא בו, ונתנו במתנה לרבי עקיבא, נטלו רבי עקיבא ויצא בו והחזירו לרבן גמליאל.

 

And it once happened that R. Gamaliel, R. Joshua, R. Elazar b. Azariah and R. Akiva were travelling on a ship and only R. Gamaliel had a lulav which he had bought for one thousand zuz. R. Gamaliel took it and fulfilled his obligation with it; then he gave it as a gift to R. Joshua who took it, fulfilled his obligation with it and gave it as a gift to R. Elazar b. Azariah who took it, fulfilled his obligation with it, and gave it as a gift to R. Akiva who took it, fulfilled his obligation with it and then returned it to R. Gamaliel.

 

Here we can see that R. Gamaliel’s very expensive lulav was passed from one sage to the other as a gift so that each could use it to fulfill his obligation.

 

למה לי למימר החזירו? – מלתא אגב אורחיה קא משמע לן: מתנה על מנת להחזיר – שמה מתנה. כי הא דאמר רבא: הא לך אתרוג זה על מנת שתחזירהו לי, נטלו ויצא בו, החזירו – יצא, לא החזירו – לא יצא.

 

Why does it need mention that he returned it?

It teaches us something incidentally–a gift made on condition that it be returned constitutes a valid gift; like that which Rava said: [If one say to his fellow], "Here is an etrog [as a gift] on condition that you return it to me," and the latter took it and fulfilled his obligation with it, if he returned it, he has fulfilled his obligation, but if he did not return it, he has not fulfilled his obligation.

 

At the end of the story of the sages, R. Akiva returns the lulav to Rabban Gamaliel. But why does the baraita even need to mention this? What additional halakhic information do we learn from this line? After all, Rabban Gamaliel already fulfilled his duty to take the lulav.

The answer is that this line hints at an important principle. If someone gives a present to someone on condition that it be returned, while the receiver holds the gift it is legally his. This means that I can give my friend an etrog (or any other part of the lulav) and specifically state that it is his on condition that he returns it. If he doesn’t return it, he has broken the condition and he has not fulfilled his obligation because retroactively it was never his.

 

למה לי למימר שלקחו באלף זוז? להודיעך כמה מצות חביבות עליהן.

 

Why did he need to mention that [R. Gamaliel] had bought it for one thousand zuz?

In order to let you know how precious to them was the opportunity of fulfilling a mitzvah.

 

There is one more extraneous detail to the baraita that R. Gamaliel spent 1000 zuz to buy his lulav. This just teaches us how precious the commandments were to them.

As an aside, the notion of a one thousand zuz lulav is clearly exaggerated. But if you want to see a great movie that picks up on this piece of folklore, watch Ushpizin.