Rosh Hashana 4:3 — The takanos for the lulav and the day of the Omer

The Lived Mishnah·A Zeman Nakat Project
Tisha B'Av Series
Mishnah 36 of 41
אִם אֶשְׁכָּחֵךְ יְרוּשָׁלָיִם
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MoedSederסדרמוֹעֵד
Rosh HashanaMesechtaמסכתראש השנה
4Perekפרקד׳
3Mishnahמשנהג׳
נושא · Topicתַּקָּנוֹת הַלּוּלָב וְיוֹם הָנֵףThe takanos for the lulav and the day of the Omer
This Mishnah is:a rule · a takanawhat does that mean?
Mishnah ראש השנה ד׳:ג׳ · Rosh Hashana 4:3
בָּרִאשׁוֹנָה הָיָה הַלּוּלָב נִטָּל בַּמִּקְדָּשׁ שִׁבְעָה,
וּבַמְּדִינָה יוֹם אֶחָד.
מִשֶּׁחָרַב בֵּית הַמִּקְדָּשׁ,
הִתְקִין רַבָּן יוֹחָנָן בֶּן זַכַּאי
שֶׁיְהֵא לוּלָב נִטָּל בַּמְּדִינָה שִׁבְעָה זֵכֶר לַמִּקְדָּשׁ,
וְשֶׁיְּהֵא יוֹם הָנֵף כֻּלּוֹ אָסוּר.
Originally the lulav was taken in the Mikdash seven days,
and in the medinah one day.
After the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed,
Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai enacted
that the lulav be taken in the medinah seven days, as a remembrance of the Mikdash;
and that the day of the Omer-waving be entirely forbidden [for the new grain].
A reading aid, not an exact translation.

This English is a clause-by-clause rendering to help you follow the Hebrew. It is not word-for-word literal, and it is not a transcript of the recorded shiur — the audio carries explanation and context the translation deliberately leaves out.

case/objectrestrictive rulingpermissive rulingTannareason
Structure
The Mishnah's Structure
בָּרִאשׁוֹנָה
בַּמִּקְדָּשׁ שִׁבְעָה · בַּמְּדִינָה יוֹם אֶחָד
seven days in one place, one day everywhere else
מִשֶּׁחָרַב
the place that held the seven is gone — one day should be all that is left
and yet
בַּמְּדִינָה שִׁבְעָה
everywhere now keeps the seven
זֵכֶר לַמִּקְדָּשׁ
Not a return to what was — the seven is carried over precisely as a remembrance of what is gone.
Summary Chart
The takanos for the lulav and the day of the Omer
CaseRulingReason
For how long is the lulav taken?While the Beis HaMikdash stood: In the Mikdash, seven days; in the medinah, one day
After the Churban — Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai: Everywhere, seven daysA remembrance of the Mikdash
What of the day of the Omer-waving after the Churban?Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai: The entire day is forbidden for the new grain
Transcript
A machine transcript of the recorded shiur.

This is the shiur as spoken, transcribed automatically and left unedited — the wording is Ephraim's, and occasional transcription errors remain. It follows the audio word by word.

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Mishnah Insights
An amalgam of commentaries, including original insights.

These insights draw on the commentaries to this Mishnah and on the recorded shiur. Those commentaries often rest on earlier sources — the Gemara, the Yerushalmi, the Rishonim, and one another — without always saying so; where they do, we generally cite the one we read. Every commentary consulted is kept, verbatim, with this card.

The lulav made a seven-day mitzvah everywhere — and why it needed no Shabbos exception

Why the lulav, unlike the shofar, got no Shabbos dispensation

Bartenura sources the split: the lulav was taken ‘before Hashem’ seven days (Vayikra 23:40) only in the Mikdash, and the rest of the land took it one day. When Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai extended the seven days everywhere as a zecher la’Mikdash, the Ran (in Tosafos Yom Tov) points to what he did not also enact: a dispensation to take the lulav on Shabbos, as there was for the shofar. A shofar left unsounded on the Shabbos of Rosh Hashanah risks the mitzvah being forgotten; a lulav missed on the Shabbos within Sukkos is still taken the other days.

The new grain, held for the day

The mishnah’s second clause turns to the new grain (chadash), which the Omer alone had permitted. With no Omer to bring, Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai ruled the whole day of the waving forbidden — the fuller working-out of that takanah is at Menachos 10:5, where the mishnah sets out the reckoning and the reason.

Series Insights
Series context

Where this sits

Where the shofar takanah preserved a mitzvah at risk, this one expands a mitzvah: the lulav that was a seven-day rite only in the Mikdash becomes a seven-day rite everywhere. This is Zecher la’Mikdash — stretching ordinary practice to carry the shape of the Temple’s. The same mishnah sits in Sukkah among the laws of lulav; here it is gathered among Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai’s ordinances.