Sukkah 024

נושא: Sukkah

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A purloined or withered lulav is invalid. That of an Asherah and an apostate city is invalid. If its tip is lopped [or] its leaves separated it is invalid, [but] if its leaves were [only] separated it is valid. Rabbi Yehudah says [the worshipper] should tie it at the top. Thorn palms from Iron Mountain are valid. A lulav that has three handbreadths [of length, enough] to shake it with is valid.

1:
So far Tractate Sukkah has concentrated on one of the main mitzvot of the festival of Sukkot, the mitzvah that, in fact, gives the festival its name: residence in a sukkah. But there are two more mitzvot associated with the festival of sukkot: the 'four species' and rejoicing. In this third chapter of the tractate we turn our attention to the second of these mitzvot, the 'four species'.

2:
The source in the Torah for this mitzvah is clear. The Torah [Leviticus 23:40-41] legislates:

On the first day [of the festival] you shall take the fruit of citrus trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of thick-leaved trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before God seven days. You shall observe it as a festival of God for seven days in the year; you shall observe it in the seventh month as a law for all time,throughout the ages.

There are two elements in this list of four species that are unclear, though tradition has clarified them: the citrus fruit has been identified as a citron; for the sake of convenience we shall call it by its Hebrew name from now on: etrog. The thick-leaved tree has been identified as the myrtle.

3:
Two other things are also unclear in this passage: how exactly are these four items to be used and how is their use related to the rejoicing which is commanded for this festival? How the sages answered these questions will become clear as we proceed further into chapters 3 and 4 of the tractate.

4:
However, there is something else that we should note before we continue. The organization of the laws of the festival of Sukkot in the Torah seems to be somewhat disjointed. Let us look at the whole presentation [Leviticus 23: 33-43]:

God spoke to Moses, saying: Tell the Israelite people: On the fifteenth day of this seventh month there shall be the Feast of Huts to God for seven days. The first day shall be a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations; seven days you shall bring offerings by fire to God. On the eighth day you shall observe a sacred occasion and bring an offering by fire to God; it is a solemn gathering: you shall not work at your occupations…

Indeed, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the yield of your land, you shall observe God's festival for seven days: a complete rest on the first day, and a complete rest on the eighth day. On the first day you shall take the fruit of citrus trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of thick-leaved trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before God seven days. You shall observe it as a festival of God for seven days in the year; you shall observe it in the seventh month as a law for all time,throughout the ages.

You shall live in booths seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in booths, in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, by Me, God.

The command concerning the four species seems to be an interjection, interrupting the otherwise clear exposition of the festival. One could read the first and third paragraphs above quite easily as an exposition of the observance of the festival. The second paragraph seems to be disconnected, as I wrote above.

5:
The problem is compounded when we read of an occasion when the festival was actually observed. Some nine decades after the return of the Jews from exile in Babylon we read [Nehemiah 8:14-17] as follows:

They found written in the Torah that God had commanded Moses that the Israelites must dwell in huts during the festival of the seventh month, and that they must announce and proclaim throughout all their towns and Jerusalem as follows, "Go out to the mountains and bring leafy branches of olive trees, pine trees, myrtles, palms and [other] leafy trees to make huts, as it is written." So the people went out and brought them, and made themselves huts on their roofs, in their courtyards, in the courtyards of the House of God … And there was very great rejoicing.

6:
Two things seem clear from this passage:

the identity of the species is different from what tradition has bequeathed us today;
the purpose of these species was to serve as s^ekhakh for the sukkah!

To this day, the Karaite Jews, who reject the Unwritten Torah and observe only the Written Torah (as explained by their tradition) thatch their sukkah with the kind of branches here described and have no ceremony such as waving the lulav and its accompanying items.

7:
The sages, however, identified the four species as referring to:

a special kind of palm-branch, which we shall call the lulav from now on;
the citrus fruit which we refer to as the etrog;
twigs of myrtle;
twigs of willow of the brook.

One consideration seems to unite these four items, and that consideration is connected with the last issue dealt with in chapter 2.

8:
You will recall that we said that rain was an acute desideratum for the farmer in ancient Israel: rains falling at the expected time meant life and plenty; rains failing to fall at the expected time meant drought, misery and death. The lulav, the etrog, the myrtle and the willow all require an abundant supply of water to grow properly. Thus these four species are intimately connected with the anxiety of the agriculturalist for rain in its season. If these four species gave him a sense of security that God would, indeed, send the life-giving rain then this would certainly be a cause for rejoicing.

To be continued.

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