Sukkah 041

1:
My apologies for the long hiatus between the previous shiur and this one. It was caused by an unexpected hospitalization and the ensuing period of convalescence (which continues).

2:
The heading of our mishnah takes us back to the list that was presented at the very beginning of Chapter 4. That list itemized the various ceremonies of the Bet Mikdash that were associated with the festival of Sukkot and the days upon which those ceremonies could be held. The last item on that list is replicated in the heading of our present mishnah, and this topic is dealt with in the first four mishnahs of chapter 5.

3:
The flute mentioned in the heading of our present mishnah represents the music that accompanied the celebrations of the water-drawing — Bet ha-Sho'evah. These celebrations, which are described in detail in the following mishnahs, could not take place either on Shabbat or on YomTov, because they would involve desecration of those holy days. If the first day of the seven days of Sukkot was on Shabbat that would leave six more days for the celebrations; otherwise one of the seven days would have to be YomTov, of course, and another would have to be Shabbat Ḥol ha-Mo'ed, the Shabbat during the festival week. That would leave only five days for the celebrations of Bet ha-Sho'evah.

4:
The Torah [Deuteronomy 16:13-15] ordains:

The element of happiness is mentioned in verse 14 and repeated and emphasized at the end of verse 15. To this day, in our liturgy this festival is referred to as 'the season of our happiness'. When the Bet Mikdash was still functioning the happiness of the festival of Sukkot was particularly expressed in the celebrations — even frivolity — associated with Bet ha-Sho'evah. (Even though the rejoicings on the last day of Sukkot called Simḥat Torah are hardly one thousand years old — but yesterday in Jewish history! — it may be that the dancing and singing on that day are echoes of the rejoicings of Bet ha-Sho'evah in the Bet Mikdash.)

5:
The extraordinary public rejoicing that was Bet ha-Sho'evah in the Bet Mikdash is summed up in the opinion of the sages quoted in the last clause of our mishnah: "Anyone who has never seen the happiness of Bet ha-Sho'evah has never in his life seen true happiness."

6:
In Chapter 4 we described the ceremony of the water libation. That ceremony was the origin of the rejoicings of Bet ha-Sho'evah. Strange as it may seem, this post powerful expression of religious exultation has no basis whatsoever in the Torah! Nowhere in the Torah are we commanded to offer a libation of water — not on Sukkot nor at any other time. The Pharisees claimed that this libation and the rejoicings that accompanied it were Halakhah le-Moshe Mi-Sinai. That is to say that while they were not written in the Torah they were part of the oral explanation that God transmitted to Moses on Sinai. (The Sadducees rejected this claim outright and would have nothing to do with Bet ha-Sho'evah. But so great was the love of the common folk for these ceremonies that, as we saw in Sukkah 039, the Hasmonean king Alexander Yannai was pelted with etrogs when he dared to defy the Pharisees on this issue.)

7:
The Hebrew term Bet ha-Sho'evah indicates 'the place of water drawing'. (A few sources refer to Bet ha-She'uvah, but the meaning is the same.) The 'place' is either the Siloam Pool from which the water for the libation was drawn or, possibly, the Priests' Court in the Bet Mikdash where the libation was offered. But most likely the 'place' was the Women's Court in the Bet Mikdash where the rejoicings took place. This will be explained in the next mishnah.