Rosh Hashanah 4:3

Rosh Hashanah Chapter 4

Halachah 3

At first, the Lulav was taken in the Mikdash 7 (days) and elsewhere, 1 day. After the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed, Rebbi Yochanan ben-Zakkai decreed that the Lulav be taken all 7 days, as a rememberance to the Mikdash, and that the day of waving (of the Omer offering, the 16th of Nissan) should be completely forbidden (this is in regard to grain that has been harvested since the last year, which only becomes allowed with the offering of the Omer, or in times without a Beit HaMikdash, with the arrival of the 16th day. Rabban Yochanan ben-Zakkai decreed that it should be forbidden until the end of the 16th day).

Yerushalmi

It is written "And you shall rejoice in front of Hashem your G-d for 7 days" (Vayikra 23:40). There are those that teach that this refers to rejoicing with the Shlamim (a type of sacrificial offering). There are those that teach that this refers to rejoicing with the Lulav (the four species).

Those that teach the rejoicing is with the Shlamim, on the first day it is a Torah mitzvah, and the rest of the days a Torah mitzvah. How can Rabban Yochanan ben-Zakkai decree on top of a Torah mitzvah?

Those that teach the rejoicing is with the Lulav, the first day is a Torah mitzvah, and the rest of the days it is a rabbinical enactment, and Rabban Yochanan ben-Zakkai is putting a decree on a rabbinical enactment. And is there a rabbinical decree on top of a rabbinical decree?

(See Pnei Moshe to Sukkah 3:11 for an alternative girsah of the last two paragraphs)

(Below, we're trying to establish here why there is a difference between in the Beit HaMikdash and outside regarding the number of days, since the prior 2 suggestions are rejected.)

The Chaverim asked in front of Rebbi Yonah: Like you say there, "And you will bring a sacrifice, a fire to Hashem for 7 days", there is no 7 (days) without Shabbat, thus it is here "and you will rejoice before Hashem your G-d for 7 days", there is no 7 without Shabbat. (What they are getting at here is that during Pesach, which is the subject for the 1st quotation, the sacrifices must be brought on all 7 days, so too on Sukkot, the happiness must be for 7 days, including Shabbat. So if the Lulav is the happiness, then it must be for 7 days including Shabbat)

He replied, "It is different, for it is written (regarding Sukkot) "And you will take on the 1st day", therefore making the 1st day separate.

From this, it should be that in the Mikdash it should push off Shabbat, but outside it shouldn't.

Rebbi Yonah replies: If it would say "And you will take before Hashem your G-d", I would say here it included and in another place it excluded. But since it says "And you will take for yourselves", it is in any place, and "and you shall rejoice before Hashem your G-d 7 days" in Yerushalayim.

(So, to recap, because the verse has rejoicing, which is the Lulav, before Hashem for 7 days, therefore Lulav is taken in the Beit HaMikdash for 7 days. But since outside of the Beit HaMikdash is not "before Hashem", therefore the mitzvah of rejoicing is not in effect, and there is only the mitzvah of the first day for the Lulav. Therefore, Rabban Yochanan ben-Zakkah can decree this in memory of the Beit HaMikdash.)

The Yerushalmi offers no commentary here for the last line of the Mishnah regarding the day of waving.

Bavli (Pages 30a-30b)

The Bavli offers no commentary here for the first part of the Mishnah regarding the Lulav.

And from where do we know that you must make a rememberance for the Beit HaMikdash? From here:

For I will restore health to you, and I will heal you from your wounds, says Hashem, for they have called you an outcase: "She is Tzion, and no one requests of her (wellbeing)" (Yirmiyahu 30:17

From this we learn that she needs requesting (דרישה).

Why is there a need to make the new (chadash) grain forbidden until after the 16th of the month? Because speedily the Beit HaMikdash will be built, and come the 16th, people will say "last year we ate chadash starting in the morning of the 16th, and they won't wait for the bringing of the Omer offering, which is what permits the chadash when the Beit HaMikdash is built.

When is this needed (for it must be that such people didn't realize or didn't know that the Beit HaMikdas has been rebuilt already)?

If we say it is built on the 16th, then the light of the morning has already made the chadash permitted. But rather we must say it is from the 15th.

If so, it should be permitted from the middle of the day on the 16th as it says in a baraita, that those that are far away can eat chadash from the middle of the day, since the Beit Din does not waste time in bringing the Omer offering.

No, it needs to be (forbidden the whole day), for the case that the Beit HaMikdash be built near sundown on the 15th or during the night of the 16th (and therefore the work required to bring the Omer might not be done on time).

Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak says that Rabban Yochanan ben-Zakkai doing the same as Rebbi Yehudah taught. As it is written "Until the midst of this day" (Vayikra 23), until the very essence of the day, and he taught that this was up to and including (the entirety of the 16th day).

But that seems to disagree (because this teaches that it is a mitzvah D'Oraita not to eat the Chadash until after the 16th), for as it says in the Mishnah that after the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed, Rabban Yochanan ben-Zakkai decreed that the day of the waving would be completely forbidden.

Rebbi Yehudah (would) say: but isn't it a prohibition from the Torah? There we see that Rebbi Yehudah made a mistake interpreting, for he thought that Rabban Yochanan ben-Zakkai made a rabbinical decree.

But it says that he decreed? What does it mean? That he explained the verse and decreed (that is to say that he explained that the verse already contained such a prohibition, but since the Beit HaMikdash had been standing, no one was familiar with the prohibition).

(The conclusion, that it the prohibition of chadash on the entire day of the 16th is at odds with the Gemara in Menachot. See the Rashi on our Mishnah)