Sukkah 031

1:
If we look carefully at the verse of the Torah that institutes the mitzvah of the lulav (the four species) we notice what seems to be an internal contradiction:

Is the mitzvah to be observed on the first day alone or from the first day for all seven days?

2:
The sages noticed a discrepancy between the first clause — to take the lulav on the first day — and the last clause — to rejoice for seven days: in the later clause the rejoicing with the four species is to be "in the presence of your God".

3:
Furthermore, the earlier clause tells us to take the four species "for yourselves". We have already seen that this was understood as implying that each person must take his own lulav, a personal mitzvah. Rejoicing "in the presence of your God" was understood as implying rejoicing in the Bet Mikdash. The halakhic midrash, Sifra, on this verse puts it tersely this way:

And the Talmud of Eretz-Israel [Sukkah 17b] makes it clear that not just in the Bet Mikdash was the lulav originally used for all seven days, but this was true of the whole of the city of Jerusalem.

4:
Thus, as our mishnah teaches, originally the mitzvah of the four species was observed in Jerusalem for all seven days of the festival whereas elsewhere in Eretz-Israel the mitzvah was only to be observed on the first day of the festival. This arrangement was deliberately changed by Rabban Yoḥanan ben-Zakkai. (For a detailed biography of this sage see Avot 117 and the subsequent shiurim.)

5:
Rabban Yoḥanan ben-Zakkai was the leader of the 'peace party' during the great war against the Romans (66-70 CE) and very well-known is the story how he contrived to escape from the besieged Jerusalem and to persuade Vespasian to permit him to establish a centre for the sages in Yavneh. (Some modern historians think that Yavneh was a kind of Roman internment camp where they kept Jewish 'leftists' out of harm's way.) With the end of the war and the destruction of the Bet Mikdash in Jerusalem in the summer of the year 70 CE Rabban Yoḥanan ben-Zakkai became the president of the Sanhedrin even though he was not a descendent of Hillel. He was the acknowledged leader of the Jewish people and he instituted several far-reaching changes in Jewish religious practice in order to compensate for the loss of the Bet Mikdash. One of these changes is noted in our present mishnah: the lulav was to be used even outside Jerusalem on all seven days of the festival. (As we shall see in the next chapter this is not quite accurate, but we can let its stand thus for now.)

6:
Another change in religious practice that Rabban Yoḥanan ben-Zakkai instituted is also noted in our mishnah: "Waving Day was prohibited all day." This has no connection with the festival of Sukkot, but rather with the festival of Passover; and we shall now explain its import.

7:
The Torah [Leviticus 23:9-14] says:

This passage occurs immediately after the institution of the festival of Passover, so it is quite clear that "the day after the sabbath" refers to one of the days of the Passover festival. (Sadducees, and later Karaites, insisted that this refers to the first Sunday in Passover week; Pharisees and the rabbinic tradition after them holds that it refers to the second day of the festival, the 16th Nisan, the 'sabbath' being YomTov itself.)

8:
The harvest to which the Torah refers, therefore, is the barley harvest, which was ready for reaping at this time of year. Barley was the staple food in ancient Eretz-Israel and in this passage the Torah requires a token gesture of one sheaf to be offered — waved — by the High Priest in the Bet Mikdash. Until that sheaf of barley had been ceremonially waved on 16th Nisan none of the new crop was to be eaten. Thus, the waving of the sheaf of barley was the signal that the new crop could be used.

9:
As darkness fell after the first day of Passover the High Priest, accompanied by huge crowds, would go out into a field of barley with a special sickle. On the day before Passover representatives of the Sanhedrin had bound a sheaf with string, ready for reaping. Nevertheless, the reaping was done with great ceremony, which is described in detail in the Gemara [Menaḥot 65a] as a dialogue between the High Priest and the attendees.

This last question was asked and answered three times!

10:
The following morning the sheaf that had been reaped was waved by the High Priest in the Bet Mikdash and that ceremony signified two things: it signified that the new crop of barley could be used throughout the land; and it signified that the counting of the 49 days that separate the festival of Passover from the festival of Pentecost had begun.

11:
With the destruction of the Bet Mikdash this ceremony could no longer be performed. Rabban Yoḥanan ben-Zakkai instituted that therefore the new barley crop should not be eaten the whole of that day and could only be used from 17th Nisan onwards.

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I take this opportunity of wishing everybody well over the fast of Atonement.