Sukkah, Daf Mem Het, Part 1

Introduction

This week’s daf opens with a new mishnah.

משנה. ההלל והשמחה שמונה, כיצד? מלמד שחייב אדם בהלל ובשמחה ובכבוד יום טוב האחרון של חג כשאר כל ימות החג.

The Hallel and rejoicing are on all eight days:

How is this so? This teaches that one is obligated for the Hallel, for rejoicing and for honoring the festival on the last day, just as he is on all the other days of the festival.

On all eight days of Sukkot and Shmini Atzeret the full Hallel is recited. This is different from Pesah on which a full Hallel is recited on the first day only. Rejoicing has a general meaning in that one is supposed to be happy on the festival, as it says in Leviticus 23:40, And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. Despite the fact that the Torah specifies seven days the rabbis expanded this to include Shmini Atzeret. Rejoicing also has a more specific ritual sense during the festival one should bring sacrifices and eat them because eating meat, a much rarer luxury in mishnaic times than it is now, was considered one of the consummate signs of rejoicing.

גמרא. מנא הני מילי? דתנו רבנן: +דברים טז+ והיית אך שמח לרבות לילי יום טוב האחרון. או אינו אלא יום טוב הראשון? כשהוא אומר אך – חלק. ומה ראית לרבות לילי יום טוב האחרון ולהוציא לילי יום טוב הראשון? מרבה אני לילי יום טוב האחרון – שיש שמחה לפניו, ומוציא אני לילי יום טוב הראשון שאין שמחה לפניו.

GEMARA. How do we know this? As our Rabbis taught, [The verse], "And you shall be altogether joyful" (Deuteronomy 16:15) includes the night of the last day of the Festival.

But perhaps it only refers to [the night of] the first day of the Festival? When it says, "akh" it divides.

But why have you seen fit to include the last night of the Festival and to exclude the first night? I include the last night since it is preceded by rejoicing and exclude the first night which is not preceded by rejoicing.

The question the Talmud asks is how we know we have to celebrate on the eve of Shemini Atzeret and then the rest of the day for Shemini Atzeret. After all the verse says that we must rejoice on Sukkot and as we have seen Shemini Atzeret is not Sukkot. According to Rashi, this midrash is based on the fact that the Torah twice says that we should rejoice on Sukkot, once in Vayikra and once in Devarim. Why the second time? The extra mention includes the night of Shemini Atzeret, and since we must rejoice at night, the whole next day is included as well. Thus we must rejoice on Shemini Atzeret.

The second stage of the baraita shows why we rejoice at night on Shemini Atzeret. As we learned in the mishnah, this "rejoicing" is expressed in the Temple by sacrificing extra well-being offerings. So they would sacrifice them on the seventh day of Sukkot in order to eat them that night, which was the beginning of the festival. This is preferable to sacrificing the day before Sukkot and then eating on the first night of Sukkot, because then the sacrifice would be offered on a day that is not even holy, the day before Sukkot.

Thus, this baraita proves that we slaughter well-being sacrifices on the last day of Sukkot in order to rejoice on Shemini Atzeret. The rejoicing is eight days, as the Mishnah taught.