Sukkah 51 - August 27, 19 Elul

Study Guide Sukkah 51

Today’s daf is sponsored by Shulamit Tyberg-Isaacs in honor of her daughter, Dr. Shifra Tyberg. “Happy birthday! May your life continue to be enriched by your Torah study and may the blessings continue. With much love, Mommy and Kim." And in memory of Pinchas Mordechai ben Reuven Moshe who passed away tragically this week, by his brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Moshe and Jeanne Klempner. "Pinny was a tzaddik with a pure soul, who lived a life of Torah, chesed and mitzvot with absolute joy."

Is the central dimension of the ‘singing” in the temple performed by the person singing or is it the instrument?  The gemara quotes the mishna Arakhin, Chapter 2, Mishnah 4, which focuses on the lineage of the people who sang during the temple service, and seeks to determine from this that there is a tannitic debate regarding what the main dimension of the signing is.  Ultimately, the gemara rejects this line of reasoning and explains the controversy is simply a historical one with some legal ramifications regarding lineage. Rav Yosef (on Sukkah 50b) had suggested that the dispute between Rabbi Yossi Bar Yehuda and the sages relates to the flute played during the sacrificial sacrifices and not the flute of the Simchat Beit Hashoeva. In his theory, no one would claim that a flute could be used at a Simchat Bet Hashoeva on Shabbat. Rabbi Yirmiya bar Abba holds the opposite: The dispute is only about the “singing” of Simchat Bat Hashoeva, but as regards the “signing” at the time of a sacrifice, instruments could be used on Shabbat according to all. In order to support his opinion, the gemara brings a braita which in effect challenges both assumptions latent in Rabbi Yosef’s statement. In concluding this discussion, the gemara seeks proof texts (from the Book of Chronicles) for each of the two positions. The next mishna describes the drama of the Simchat Bet Hashoeva ceremony with the words “one who has not seen the joy of the joy of the Simchat Bet Hashoeva has never seen joy.” Candelabras were lit by children of kohanim, Levites stood on the steps playing musical instruments played and people would dance with torches. There were temporary structures placed in the temple for the Simchat Bet Hashoeva and two kohanim held a procession in which they blew trumpets as they exited the Temple. The gemara begins by describing other instances where the words "One who has not seen the... of... has not seen..." The structures described in the mishna that were built for the Simchat Beit Hashoeva were meant to separate men and women. The gemara describes the changes regarding these structures over time.