Sukkah, Daf Nun, Part 3

 

Introduction

The fifth chapter of Sukkah is all about the Temple celebration known as the Simhat Bet Hashoevah.

 

/משנה/. החליל חמשה וששה, זהו החליל של בית השואבה שאינו דוחה לא את השבת ולא את יום טוב.

 

The flute was for five or six days. This refers to the flute at the Bet Hashoevah [the place of the water-drawing] which does not override Shabbat or the festival day.

 

The mishnah refers to a flute that was played during the Simchat Bet Hashoevah. This celebration would only take place on five or six days because it did not override Shabbat or the festival day. So if the first day of Sukkot and Shabbat coincided, then it would happen for six days; if not for only five. Interestingly, in the descriptions of the Bet Hashoevah that follow, the flute is no longer present.

 

גמרא. איתמר, רב יהודה ורב עינא. חד תני: שואבה, וחד תני: חשובה. אמר מר זוטרא: מאן דתני שואבה לא משתבש, ומאן דתני חשובה לא משתבש. מאן דתני שואבה לא משתבש – דכתיב +ישעיהו יב+ ושאבתם מים בששון. ומאן דתני חשובה לא משתבש – דאמר רב נחמן: מצוה חשובה היא, ובאה מששת ימי בראשית.

 

Gemara: It was stated: Rav Judah and R. Ina: One of them taught Shoevah and the other taught Hashuvah.

Mar Zutra said: He who teaches, Shoevah is not in error, and he who teaches Hashuvah is not in error.

He who teaches Shoevah is not in error, since it is written, "And you shall draw water in joy" (Isaiah 12:3) and he who teaches Hashuvah is not in error, since R. Nahman stated: It is an important mitzvah, dating from the very creation.

 

There are two readings of the mishnah Shoeavah and Hashuvah. According to Mar Zutra both readings make sense. "Shoevah" refers to the root which means to draw water and is found in Isaiah 12. "Hashuvah" means "important" and it refers to the description of the pits that we read about earlier in the previous chapter. These pits were created during the seven days of creation and the water during the water libation ceremony is poured out into them.

We should note that originally when these two versions of the mishnah were created, they both probably referred to the same thing the drawing of the water. The difference was simply in pronunciation. Some people swallowed the heh and pronounced it "shoeavah." Whereas others pronounced the word "hashuvah." But there was no difference in meaning. The difference in meaning was imparted to it by Mar Zutra, a later amora.