Comme ils l'ont fait (avec les aravoth) un jour de semaine, ils l'ont fait le Shabbath; mais ils les cueillaient la veille du sabbat. Et ils les mettaient dans des vases d'or [remplis d'eau] pour que leurs feuilles ne se fanent pas. R. Yochanan b. Beroka dit: Ils apporteraient des pousses de palmier [à la fois un jour de semaine et le Shabbath], et non aravoth, il est écrit (Lévitique 23:40): "kapoth (pluriel) de palmiers dattiers"—l'un pour le loulav, l'autre pour l'autel.] Et ils les frappaient sur le sol à côté de l'autel. Et ce jour s'appelait «Le jour de la frappe des pousses». [La halakha n'est pas conforme à R. Yochanan b. Beroka.]
Bartenura on Mishnah Sukkah
גיגיות – golden utensils filled with water, in order that their leaves will not wither.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Sukkah
Introduction
The first section of this mishnah teaches how the aravah ritual was performed on Shabbat. In the second section we see that at least one rabbi thought that this was not an aravah ritual but a ritual performed with palm branches.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Sukkah
חריות – branches of the palm tree that they would bring whether on weekdays or on the Sabbath, and not the willow, as it is written (Leviticus 23:40): “boughs of leafy trees,” which are two, one for the Lulav and another for the Altar. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yohanan ben Beroka.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Sukkah
As was its performance on a weekday, so was its performance on Shabbat, except that they would gather them on the eve of Shabbat and place them in golden basins so that they would not become wilted. The mishnah emphasizes that when this ritual was done on Shabbat (if it fell on the seventh day) it was done in the exact same way that it was done during the week. This seems to be an emphasis of the rabbis in several places certain holiday rituals are indeed carried out on Shabbat. This is another area of halakhah in which the rabbis/Pharisees deeply disagreed with the Sadducees and the sect from the Dead Sea. Indeed, according to the solar calendar used by the Dead Sea Sect, the holidays mostly began on Wednesdays. They thought that holiday ritual never superseded Shabbat and they shaped their calendar accordingly. In contrast the Pharisees/rabbis said that on certain occasions, it did.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Sukkah
Rabbi Yohanan ben Beroka says: they used to bring palm branches and they would beat them on the ground at the sides of the altar, and that day was called “[the day of] the beating of the palm branches.” In this section we learn that Rabbi Yohanan ben Beroka disagrees with all of the previous mishnayot. He holds that the entire ritual was done with palm branches and not with aravot. At the end of the rituals they would beat whatever had been carried around the altar for seven days (the palm branches according to Rabbi Yohanan ben Beroka, and aravot according to the other sages). That day was called “the day of the beating of the palm branches/aravot.” To this day beating the aravot on Hoshanah Rabbah is still customary. Other commentators explain that Rabbi Yohanan’s debate with the other sages is only concerning the seventh day. On that day one takes palm branches and aravot. On the other days he agrees that he takes only aravot.
