Sukkah, Daf Mem Aleph, Part 6
Introduction
Today’s section discusses the practice of holding the lulav in one’s hands all day long. It seems that these people read the verse "And you shall take for yourselves on the first day" as if it meant that one should just hold the lulav all day long! Today the practice is generally to take the lulav once during the day at synagogue, to hold it during parts of the service, but then to put it aside for the rest of the day.
אמר ליה מר בר אמימר לרב אשי: אבא צלויי קא מצלי ביה. מתיבי: לא יאחז אדם תפילין בידו וספר תורה בחיקו ויתפלל, ולא ישתין בהן מים, ולא יישן בהן לא שינת קבע ולא שינת עראי. ואמר שמואל: סכין וקערה ככר ומעות – הרי אלו כיוצא בהן!
התם לאו מצוה נינהו וטריד בהו, הכא – מצוה נינהו ולא טריד בהו.
Mar bar Amemar said to R. Ashi: My father used to recite his prayers [while holding the lulav].
They objected: One should not hold his tefillin in his hand or a Torah scroll in his bosom and pray, nor should he urinate [while wearing them], or doze or sleep.
And Shmuel said about this: The same applies to a knife, a dish, a loaf of bread and money?
In the latter cases he is not performing a mitzvah and, therefore, would worry over them but in the former one he is fulfilling a mitzvah and therefore he would not worry over it.
Mar bar Amemar, a late Babylonian amora, says his father used to pray while holding his lulav. The Talmud objects by citing a baraita that states that one shouldn’t hold objects in one’s hand while praying, even a pair of tefillin or a Torah scroll. Shmuel adds that the same is true for more mundane items. Basically, holding an item is considered distracting and therefore one should not do so while praying.
The answer is that there is a difference between holding something used to fulfill a mitzvah and something that is not a mitzvah. When holding an object that he need not be holding he is worried over it falling and he won’t concentrate on his prayers. But when he is holding his lulav, he will be so happy to be performing a mitzvah that he won’t feel as if he is worried and he will be able to concentrate on his prayers.
As an aside, this line contains the interesting and in my opinion true notion that when we are excited about something, it is less difficult to perform a task.
תניא, רבי אלעזר בר צדוק אומר: כך היה מנהגן של אנשי ירושלים, אדם יוצא מביתו ולולבו בידו, הולך לבית הכנסת לולבו בידו, קורא קריאת שמע ומתפלל ולולבו בידו, קורא בתורה ונושא את כפיו – מניחו על גבי קרקע. הולך לבקר חולים ולנחם אבלים – לולבו בידו, נכנס לבית המדרש – משגר לולבו ביד בנו וביד עבדו וביד שלוחו, מאי קא משמע לן? להודיעך כמה היו זריזין במצות.
It has been taught: R. Elazar b. Zadok stated: This was the custom of the men of Jerusalem. When a man left his house he carried his lulav in his hand; when he went to the synagogue his lulav was in his hand, when he read the Shema and prayed his lulav was still in his hand, but when he read Torah or recited the priestly benediction he would lay it on the ground. If he went to visit the sick or to comfort mourners, he would go with his lulav in his hand, but when he entered the Bet Midrash, he would send his lulav by the hand of his son, his slave or his messenger.
What does this teach us? It informs you how zealous they were in the performance of mitzvot.
In this baraita we learn that the people of Jerusalem basically carried their lulavim with them everywhere they went during Sukkot. There were only a few occasions when a person would put it down. When reading Torah or reciting the priestly benediction a person would need both hands, so he would have to put it down on the ground (I’m assuming they just didn’t have anywhere else to put it). And when studying in the Bet Midrash, the person would be so intensely occupied with his learning that he would forget he had a lulav in his hand. To avoid the problems that this could cause, he would send his lulav away with someone else who wasn’t going to be studying in the Bet Midrash.