Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Daf Yomi - Sukkah 32 - Requirement for Shofar and Lulav to be a Tefach

The Gemora states that the spine of the lulav must be one tefach higher than where the hadassim end. The Gemora Niddah lists five things where the measurement is a tefach. Included in the listing is the third wall of a sukkah, the size of a shofar and the tefach of the lulav. Seemingly, the measurement for the lulav and shofar would be required Biblically just as the third wall of a sukkah must be at least a tefach and that was learned from a halacha l'Moshe misinai.

It is interesting to note that the L'vush 650 writes that the measurements of the height of the lulav, hadassim and arovos are all biblical in nature as they are halacha l'Moshe misinai, however the requirement for the shofar to be at least a tefach is only Rabbinic in nature.

Reb Meir Arik in Tal Torah asks on the L'vush as to where is the source to distinguish between the shofar and the lulav? From the Gemora in Niddah, it would seem that they are both Biblically required?


Anonymous said...

Perhaps because the shiur of the shofar is only in order to be able to hold it, not an independent shiur....

Anonymous said...

It's worth noting that the Rambam puts those three mitzvos all together in one "Halachos" section in the Yad, Hilchos Shofar Sukka V'Lulav.