Sukkah 025

9:
The Mishnah's treatment of the four species begins with the lulav. The lulav is, as we have already mentioned, a branch from a palm tree. There are several kinds of palm tree, but only the branches of the common palm are valid for religious purposes. The common palm grows in desert oases — mainly in the Jordan Valley in Eretz-Israel and in the northern part of the Sinai peninsular. It needs high summer temperatures (25-30°C) and if in the winter the temperature drops below 5°C the extreme cold damages the branches.

10:
Our present mishnah presents several considerations concerning the validity of a lulav for the purposes of the festival. First of all the lulav must belong to the person using it. This requirement derives from a careful examination of the Hebrew text of the Torah [Leviticus 23:40]:

The almost enclitic "for yourselves" was understood by the sages as implying that the lulav must belong to the person using it. This means that a stolen lulav is invalid, not only for ethico-halakhic reasons but also for liturgic-halakhic reasons. It also means that a lulav that has been "borrowed" cannot be valid for liturgical purposes: the lender must pass on the lulav as a gift (or a sale!) — even if it is understood by both the lender and the borrower that it is expected that the gift will be returned. (A common error in many congregations is giving the lulav to children: in halakhah a child can receive property but cannot transfer ownership. It would be better either to have a special lulav for the use of children or not to pass the lulav to a child before all the adults have performed the mitzvah.)

11:
We have already explained how the Hebrew text of the Torah came to be understood as referring to an etrog. But the Hebrew phrase literally translates "fruit of a glorious tree". The sages held that the adjective 'glorious', 'stately', 'majestic' should be applied to all four items and not just to the etrog. That is why a withered lulav is unacceptable. (Obviously, too, a withered lulav is hardly an expression of the hope for a rainy season: its very state proclaims that it has been deprived of water.)

12:
In the Gemara the sages often point out the obvious: A mitzvah cannot be performed through a sin [Sukkah 30a, Berakhot 47b, Bava Kamma 94a etc]. That is why a stolen lulav cannot be used. That is also why our mishnah invalidates a lulav that came from an Asherah or an apostate city.

13:
When we studied Tractate Avodah Zarah we learned that the term Asherah refers to a tree that has been the object of pagan worship. When we studied Tractate Sanhedrin we learned about an apostate city. Briefly, an apostate city is a township all of whose inhabitants have been seduced to idolatry. The harsh ruling of the Torah [Deuteronomy 13:16-18] is very clear:

Therefore, a lulav that comes from an apostate city is invalid. (The Gemara [Sanhedrin 71a] assures us that there never has been an apostate city and there never will be!)

14:
There are other aspects of 'glory' that apply to the lulav. Its tip must still be intact. Also, its separate leaves must still be conjoined at the base, where it was lopped from the tree. If the leaves have separated off from the stem it is invalid — even if they are bound together so that they not separate. Rabbi Yehudah holds that separated leaves can be bound together further up the stem, but his opinion is rejected by the sages and is not halakhah. However, if the leaves are still attached together at the stem the lulav is valid, even if they have become separated further up the stem.

15:
Our mishnah also validates palm branches taken from a place called Iron Mountain. It seems that this kind of lulav was acceptable even though the way in which the leaves of the lulav grow on the stem is different from the regular lulav. In his commentary on our mishnah Rabbi Ovadya of Bertinoro says that Iron Mountain was a spot near Jerusalem. It could well be that here he is just automatically ascribing yet another characteristic to the holy city: it seems very unlikely that the lulav could grow on the hills surrounding Jerusalem: the terrain is too high and the winters are too cold.

16:
The last consideration mentioned by our mishnah is the size of the lulav. It must have a length of at least three handbreadths, so that there will be sufficient length both to hold it at its base and to shake it so that its upper end will at least wobble slightly. Three handbreadths is about 25 centimetres (between 9 and 10 inches).