Sukkah, Daf Mem Bet, Part 6
Introduction
Today’s section includes only the mishnah that opens chapter four. My commentary is taken from Mishnah Yomit.
The mishnah opens with an introduction to the remainder of the tractate Sukkot. On Sukkot there are some mitzvot that are observed for the full eight days (seven days of Sukkot and one day of Shmini Atzeret) and there are other mitzvot that are observed for a lesser number of days, either because they are not observed on Shabbat or because they do not apply to Shmini Atzeret.
1) לולב וערבה – ששה ושבעה,
2) ההלל והשמחה – שמונה.
3) סוכה וניסוך המים – שבעה.
4) החליל – חמשה וששה.
5) לולב שבעה כיצד?
a) יום טוב הראשון של חג שחל להיות בשבת – לולב שבעה, ושאר כל הימים ששה.
6) ערבה שבעה כיצד?
a) יום השביעי של ערבה שחל להיות בשבת – ערבה שבעה, ושאר כל הימים – ששה.
7) מצות לולב כיצד (בשבת)?
8) יום טוב הראשון של חג שחל להיות בשבת מוליכין את לולביהן להר הבית, והחזנין מקבלין מהן וסודרין אותן על גבי איצטבא, והזקנים מניחין את שלהן בלשכה. ומלמדין אותם לומר: כל מי שמגיע לולבי לידו – הרי הוא לו במתנה.
9) למחר משכימין ובאין, והחזנין זורקין אותם לפניהם והן מחטפין ומכין איש את חבירו.
10) וכשראו בית דין שבאו לידי סכנה – התקינו שיהא כל אחד ואחד נוטל בביתו.
1) [The rituals of] the lulav and the aravah are for six or seven [days];
2) The Hallel and the rejoicing are for eight [days];
3) The sukkah and the water libation are for seven [days];
4) The flute is for five or six [days].
5) The lulav for seven. How so?
a) If the first day of the festival fell on Shabbat, the lulav [is taken for] seven days; on any other day, [it is taken] for six.
6) The aravah seven days. How is this?
a) If the seventh day of [the ritual of] the aravah fell on Shabbat, [it lasts] seven days; if it fell on any other day, [it lasts only] six.
7) The mitzvah of the lulav how was it carried out?
8) If the first day of the festival fell on Shabbat, they brought their lulavim to the Temple Mount, and the attendants would receive them and arrange them on top of the portico, and the elders laid theirs in the chamber. And they would teach the people to say, Whoever gets my lulav in his hand, let it be his as a gift.
9) The next day they got up early, and came [to the Temple Mount] and the attendants threw down [their lulavim] before them, and they snatched at them, and so they used to come to blows with one another.
10) When the court saw that they reached a state of danger, they instituted that each man should take [his lulav] in his own home.
Section one: The lulav and the special mitzvah of the aravah are observed for either six days or seven days. We will learn why below. The mitzvah of the aravah refers to circling the altar with the aravah, a mitzvah described in detail later in the chapter.
Section two: The full Hallel is recited for all eight days of Sukkot and Shmini Atzeret. Similarly, there is a mitzvah to rejoice on all eight days of the festival. Both of these are referred to later in the chapter.
Section three: The mitvah to sit in a sukkah is for only seven days. On Shemini Atzeret one does not sit in the sukkah. The water libation was a special libation of water poured onto the altar only on Sukkot. It is described in detail later in the chapter. Here we learn that they would perform this special water libation for all seven days of the festival, even on Shabbat.
Section four: The flute is played at a special celebration that occurred in the Temple called Simchat Bet Hashoeva. This celebration does not take place on Shabbat, the first day of the festival (Yom Tov) or on Shmini Atzeret. Hence the flute is played for only five or six days, depending on whether the first day of the festival is on Shabbat. Simchat Bet Hashoeva is described at length in chapter five.
Section five: As we have learned before, outside of Jerusalem it is a mitzvah from the Torah to take the lulav only on the first day of the festival. Hence, if the first day of the festival falls on Shabbat, one still performs the mitzvah of the lulav. We saw this described in chapter three. In such a case the lulav will be taken for seven days one day in which the mitzvah is deoraita from the Torah, and the rest of the days it is derabbanan from the rabbis.
However, if Shabbat falls on another day besides the first day of the festival, then since the mitzvah is only of rabbinic origin, it is not observed. In other words, the derabanan mitzvah of the lulav does not override the Shabbat. In such a case the mitzvah is observed for only six days.
Since the time of the Babylonian Talmud it has become customary not to take the lulav on Shabbat, even if it falls on the first day of the festival. However, this is not the custom reflected in the mishnah.
Section six: The only difference between this section and the previous section concerning the lulav is that the lulav is taken on Shabbat if Shabbat is the first day of the festival, whereas the aravah (the willow) is taken on Shabbat if Shabbat falls on the seventh day of the festival. If Shabbat falls on one of the other days, the aravah ritual is not performed on that day and it will turn out that the aravah ritual happens on only six days. Later in the chapter we will learn more about the aravah ritual as it was performed in the Temple. The reason that only the seventh day supersedes Shabbat is that the seventh day is the climax of the ritual.
Section seven: The question is not really how the mitzvah of lulav was in general performed, but rather how the mitzvah was performed so as to avoid the problem while avoiding certain halakhic problems that would arise on Shabbat.
Section eight: The problem of taking the lulav in the Temple on Shabbat is twofold. First of all it is forbidden to carry a lulav through the public domain on Shabbat, so they would have to bring their lulavim to the Temple Mount on Friday. Secondly, one has to be able to recognize his own lulavim because one can fulfill one’s obligation only with one’s own lulav. In chapter three we saw that in the synagogue everyone recognized their lulav. In the Temple there were just too many lulavim to hope that everyone would recognize which was theirs. Therefore the leaders in the Temple trained everyone to say that if someone else took their lulav, then that lulav should belong to them. In this way everyone would own the lulav that they actually ended up with.
Section nine: While this solution resolved the halakhic problem, it created a social problem people were still jostling each other over who gets which lulav. It might have been that everyone was trying to get their own lulav, despite what they had said the previous day. Equally likely in my opinion, is that everyone wanted to take the nicest looking lulav they could find, even if the one that they had brought was not the best. In any case, the mad scramble for lulavim led to brawls. This seems to be another case of people allowing their religious zeal to go overboard causing them to neglect the welfare of their fellow human being.
Section ten: The court was quick to put an end to this situation and ruled that it is better for people just to stay at home then to potentially harm each other over the taking of the lulav. I think it is essential to notice how far the court was willing to go to ensure the safety of the people and to prevent religious zealotry from becoming a dominant force. Better that the opportunity to join together in fulfilling the mitzvah of the lulav should be lost than that it should bring violent results.