Siman - Succah Daf 31
- גזל עצים וסיכך בהן אין לו אלא דמי עצים
A Baraisa stated, גזל עצים וסיכך בהן דברי הכל אין לו אלא דמי עצים – If one stole pieces of wood and made a succah with them, all agree that the original owner has the right to receive only the value of the wood, and the robber may keep the succah. The Gemara brings an incident where a certain elderly woman came before Rav Nachman and said to him: “The Reish Galusa and all the rabbanon of the Reish Galusa’s house, have been sitting in a stolen succah, for its wood has been stolen from me!” She screamed, demanding that her wood be returned, but Rav Nachman paid no attention to her. She said to him: “A woman whose father had three hundred and eighteen servants, (which Rashi says is a reference to Avraham Avinu, who owned 318 servants), is screaming before you and you pay no attention to her!?” Rav Nachman ignored her and said to his students פעיתא היא דא – This woman is a screamer. ואין לה אלא דמי עצים בלבד – and she is entitled only to the value of the wood that was stolen from her, but not the wood itself.
- יבש פסול רבי יהודה מכשיר
It was taught in a Baraisa: יבש פסול רבי יהודה מכשיר – A dry lulav is passul, but Rebbe Yehudah is machsir it. Rava said that the machlokes pertains to a lulav, but not to an esrog, דרבנן סברי מקשינן לולב לאתרוג – for the Rabbanon hold that we make a hekeish between the lulav and esrog as follows: מה אתרוג בעי הדר אף לולב בעי הדר – Just as the esrog requires beauty, so too the lulav requires beauty, whereas Rebbe Yehudah holds that we do not make the hekeish and the lulav does not require beauty. אבל באתרוג דברי הכל הדר בעינן – However concerning the esrog, everybody agrees that it requires beauty. When Rava is challenged, based on the fact that Rebbe Yehudah says יאגדנו למעלה – one should tie a lulav at the top if the leaves are spread apart, presumably because of הידור, the Gemara answers that Rebbe Yehudah holds that the words כפת תמרים teaches - ואם היה פרוד יכתפנו the lulav should as one, and if it was spread apart, one should tie it together. After many attempts, the Gemara is unsuccessful in proving that Rebbe Yehudah requires hiddur for a lulav but does refute Rava’s statement that Rebbe Yehudah requires hiddur for an esrog, from the fact that Rebbe Yehudah is machshir an old esrog.
- נסדק כשר
The Mishnah on Daf 29b stated: נקטם ראשו פסול – If the lulav’s top is clipped off it is passul. Rav Huna said that they only taught this concerning the case where the top is actually clipped off, אבל נסדק כשר – but if it was merely split, the lulav is kosher. The Gemara questions whether a split lulav is kosher, from a Baraisa that taught: לולב כפוף קווץ סדוק עקום דומה למגל פסול – A lulav that is bent over that looks like a fishhook, barbed, meaning that it hass thorny stems protruding from its spine, split, or curved like a sickle, it is passul. We see from here that נסדק is passul? Rav Pappa said, דעביד כהימנק – The Baraisa refers to a case where the lulav was made like a himnak. Rashi explains that the Baraisa is not referring to a lulav whose leaves have split open, but rather to a lulav that grew in the shape of a himnak, which is a metal tool used by sofrim that is forked at one end. If the lulav grew in this shape, it appears to have two spines,
with the leaves reaching in opposite directions. Such a lulav is passul, but a lulav whose leaves have split open is kosher.
