Sukkah 029

נושא: Sukkah

BET MIDRASH VIRTUALI

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Today's shiur is dedicated by Sherry Fyman
In memory of her mother,
Glickel bat Pinchas HaLevi,
Whose Yahrzeit was yesterday, 26th Elul.

The lulav is bound only with its own species *#8212; according to Rabbi Yehudah; Rabbi Me'ir says [that it may be bound] even with string. Rabbi Me'ir says that the people in Jerusalem used to bind their lulavs with golden bands. [The sages] said to him that further down [the spine of the lulav] they would bind it with its species.

Where did they shake [the lulav]? — At "Thank God" at the beginning and at the end; and at "O God, deliver us". This is the view of Bet Hillel; Bet Shammai say [that it is shaken] also at "O God, let us prosper". Rabbi Akiva says, I was watching Rabban Gamli'el and Rabbi Yehoshu'a: all the people were shaking their lulavs but they only shook them at "O God, deliver us". If someone is travelling and has no lulav at hand to use when he reaches home he must use it at his table. If one did not use it at the morning service it should be used [even] during twilight, since the whole day is valid for the lulav.

1:
The Torah [Leviticus 23:40] requires us to take the four species on the first day of the festival of Sukkot:

On the first day you shall take a citrus fruit, palm branches, the branch of a thick tree and willows of the brook and rejoice before God for seven days.

But what does the Torah mean by "take"? This question has at least two possible connotations: how are we to take the four species? — buy them, hold them, look at them? Also, what are we supposed to do with them after we have 'taken' them? The two mishnahs of today's shiur serve as answers to these questions.

2:
The first clause of Mishnah 8 teaches two things:

the four species (lulav, etrog, myrtle and willow) must be taken together, as one unit;
if they are bound together, to form one unit, they may only be bound with one of these four species.

Actually, for physical reasons only three of the four species can truly be bound together, so for the purposes of binding together we are referring only to the lulav, the myrtle and the willow.

3:
This is the view of Rabbi Yehudah. He holds that the species must be bound together into one unit and the binding material must come from one of the three species. His reasoning is that if one were to use a different species to bind them together one would be creating, as it were, a fifth species to add onto the four required by the Torah. Such an addition is forbidden by the Torah itself:

Be careful to observe only that which I enjoin upon you: neither add to it nor take away from it. [Deuteronomy 13:1]

4:
However, Rabbi Me'ir disagrees with this whole line of reasoning. While he admits that binding the three species together is a good thing to do he holds that there is no indication in the Torah that this must be done. Therefore, if the binding is not essential to the mitzvah, it may be done by using even a piece of string, since you cannot "add to a mitzvah" that does not really exist!

5:
Halakhah follows the opinion of Rabbi Me'ir: it is a good idea to bind the three species together and this may be done with any materials. The custom, however, has developed to use leaves from a lulav to bind the three species together, according to the view of Rabbi Yehudah; but if this is not possible the mitzvah may still be performed because actual halakhah follows the view of Rabbi Me'ir.

6:
Rabbi Me'ir 'proves' his point by referencing the sages of Jerusalem in Temple times: they would bind their lulav with golden threads. The rest of the sages, however, correct his statement. The sages of Jerusalem did bind their lulav with golden threads, but further down, where the three species are held in the hand, the binding was done with lulav leaves. Thus, again, the golden threads were merely decorative and not essential.

7:
We now come to Mishnah 9. Having established how we are to 'take' the four species the Mishnah now explains what we are to do with them. A careful reading of the first mishnah of this present chapter [Sukkah 024] reveals the last clause:

A lulav that has three handbreadths [of length, enough] to shake it with is valid.

Thus we have already been told that we use the four species by shaking them. Now, our present mishnah seeks to explain when, in the service, this shaking of the four species takes place.

8:
An essential part of the ritual on the first day of Sukkot is the recitation of Hallel. Hallel is a collection of psalms (Psalms 113-118) which are recited on joyous occasions. The main element in this collection of psalms is Psalm 118. Psalm 118 begins with the words "Praise God, for He is good, his steadfast love is eternal." These same words are repeated at the very end of the Psalm [verse 29]. Another salient verse in the psalm is verse 25: "O God, deliver us! O God, let us prosper!"

9:
According to Bet Hillel the lulav (i.e. the four species) is to be shaken when we recite the first and last verses of Psalm 118 and when we recite the first half of verse 25. Bet Shammai would add also the second half of verse 25. Halakhah follows the view of Bet Hillel.

To be continued.

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This is the last shiur before the festival of Rosh ha-Shanah, which begins on Wednesday evening. I wish everybody a very happy New Year. May this coming year be a year of peace, development and spiritual growth; a year during which, by improving the spiritual quality of the way we lead our lives, we shall hasten the golden age to come when "the earth will be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea" [Isaiah 11:9]. May we all be inscribed for a good year. Amen.

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