Study Sukkah folio 32A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
קווץ, סדוק, עקום דומה למגל — פסול. חרות — פסול. דומה לחרות — כשר. אמר רב פפא: דעביד כהימנק.
that is thorny, split, or curved to the extent that it is shaped like a sickle is unfit. If it became hard as wood it is unfit. If it merely appears like hard wood but is not yet completely hardened, it is fit. Apparently, a split lulav is unfit. Rav Pappa said: The split lulav in the baraita is so split that it is shaped like a fork [heimanak], with the two sides of the split completely separated, and it appears that the lulav has two spines.
עקום דומה למגל, אמר רבא: לא אמרן אלא לפניו, אבל לאחריו — ברייתיה הוא.
The baraita continues: If it is curved to the extent that it is shaped like a sickle, it is unfit. Rava said: We said that it is unfit only when it is curved forward away from the spine; however, if it is curved backward, toward the spine, it is fit for use because that is its nature, and that is the way a lulav typically grows.
אמר רב נחמן: לצדדין — כלפניו דמי. ואמרי לה: כלאחריו דמי.
Rav Naḥman said: The legal status of a lulav that is curved to either of the sides is like that of a lulav curved forward, and it is unfit. And some say: Its legal status is like that of a lulav curved backward, and it is fit.
ואמר רבא: האי לולבא דסליק בחד הוצא — בעל מום הוא, ופסול.
And Rava said: This lulav that grew with one leaf, i.e., leaves on only one side of the spine, is blemished and unfit.
נפרצו עליו כו׳. אמר רב פפא: נפרצו — דעביד כי חופיא. נפרדו — דאיפרוד אפרודי.
§ The Mishnah continues: If the palm leaves were severed from the spine of the lulav, it is unfit; if its leaves were spread, it is fit. Rav Pappa said: Severed means that the leaves are completely detached from the spine, and one ties them to the lulav, so that the lulav is made like a broom. Spread means that the leaves remain attached but are merely separated from the spine in that they jut outward.