About this episode
Rav Ashi limits the debate between Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Yochanan regarding how one can transfer the sanctity of shmita fruits. At first, he says they are only debating the case of the fruits themselves but all would agree that money or an item that had kedusha sanctified by the fruits would be able to transfer sanctity to another item either by sale or by redemption, chilul . However, after a question is raised, he switches his opinion and says the debate is about items sanctified by the fruits, but all would agree regarding the fruits themselves that they can only transfer sanctity through a sale. In the days when the temple stood, they would take the lulav for seven days in the temple and outside the temple only one day. After the destruction of the temple, Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai established that lulav be taken all seven days to remember what was done in the days the temple stood. He also instituted that the new wheat would be forbidden on the 16th of Nisan until the end of the day. Why was it forbidden all day? When the first day of Yom Tov falls on Shabbat in the times of the temple, everyone (even outside the temple) would take a lulav. They would all bring it to the synagogue. How would they ensure that they would have their own lulav? Rabban Gamliel came on a boat with some other rabbis and only he had a lulav that he bought for 1,000 zuz. After he took the lulav, he gave it to others as a gift so that they could use it and then give it back to him. Why did the story tell us that he bought it for so much money? To show how much he loved performing the mitzva. Ameimar would hold the lulav during prayers (the whole time). The gemara raises a question on this. How is it resolved? It is told about the people of Jerusalem that they held their lulavs all day, other than the times that it was not manageable, such as when they learned Torah.