Sukkah 54b (נד:) — the Talmud in English

And the Gemara rejects this:

If it is because

it also omitted

the eve of Passover—

that is not an omission.

For it can be said

that indeed,

since our Mishna, which did not mention the eve of Passover,

whose opinion is it?

It is Rabbi Yehuda’s!

According to him, there were not twenty-seven blasts on the eve of Passover.

For

Rabbi Yehuda

said: In all their days, the third group never reached the point of reciting

“

I love that the Lord hears,”

during its first recitation of Hallel,

because there were few people with it.

And it follows that they did not sound the blasts for three recitations in that group; rather, it had only forty-two blasts.

And

the Gemara is astonished at this rejection: How could you say that our Mishna did not mention the eve of Passover because it follows Rabbi Yehuda !?

And

you said

earlier that

the first clause

is

not in accordance with Rabbi Yehuda,

since according to him, a tekia and a terua are considered one blast!

The Gemara resolves the difficulty with the rejection:

But perhaps this tanna

of our Mishna

agrees with him

Rabbi Yehuda

in one matter,

namely, that on the eve of Passover the third group does not recite the second and third recitations of Hallel,

but disagrees with him in one matter,

namely, that the tanna of our Mishna does not call a tekia and a terua one blast

!? And if so, since the tanna did not omit the eve of Passover, the previous question returns:

Rather, what else

else

did he omit, such that this is an omission!?

We answer:

He omitted the eve of Passover that falls on the eve of Shabbat,

which has forty-eight blasts.

For indeed

remove six,

the six blasts for the second and third recitations of Hallel, in accordance with Rabbi Yehuda, but

add six.

The six blasts sounded before Shabbat must be added.

We learned in the Mishna:

And one does not add to forty-eight.

And we inquire about this:

And

when

no

blasts are added beyond this number?

But there is the eve of Passover that falls on Shabbat,

with a greater number of blasts.

For if

the tanna of our Mishna

follows

follows

Rabbi Yehuda,

who says that there were no blasts for the second and third recitations of Hallel by the third group—

there are fifty-one

blasts!

There are twenty-one blasts on every day, nine additional blasts for the musaf offerings, and eighteen further blasts—three blasts for each of the three recitations of the two groups [the first and second]. In addition, there are three blasts for the first recitation of the third group. Together, these are fifty-one blasts.

If it follows the Rabbis—

there are fifty-seven

blasts, since according to them the six blasts for the third group’s two additional recitations of Hallel must be added.

We answer:

When it teaches—

it teaches something that occurs every year,

a day that occurs every year.

But

the eve of Passover that falls on Shabbat, which does not occur

that is not

every single year—

it does not teach.

We challenge this: Is it so that

the eve of Shabbat that occurs during the festival—

does it occur every year?

But

sometimes it is not found, and what is the case?

For example, when the first day of the festival falls on the eve of Shabbat,

in which case Shemini Atzeret falls on Friday, and there is no eve of Shabbat during the festival.

We answer: There will always be an eve of Shabbat during the festival of Sukkot, because it will never happen that the first day of Sukkot falls on the eve of Shabbat.

For,

since if

it should happen that

it would have to fall on

the first day of the festival on the eve of Shabbat—

we postpone it,

so that this will not occur, by intercalating the month of Elul [even though the moon was seen on the thirtieth of Elul and there is no need to intercalate it].

And

for what reason

do we intercalate Elul [improperly], in order to postpone the first day of the festival so that it will not fall on the eve of Shabbat?

Because

once

if

the first day of the festival should fall on the eve of Shabbat,

then

Yom Kippur

preceding it—

when would it be?

On Sunday!

For it is four days before Sukkot. It follows that Shabbat and the Yom Kippur following it would be two consecutive days of complete cessation from labor.

Therefore, we postpone it,

by intercalating the month of Elul, so that there will not be two consecutive days of cessation from labor, and the corpses will not putrefy and the vegetables will not wilt.

We question this:

Do we really postpone it

because Yom Kippur would be adjacent to Shabbat?

But we learned in the Mishna: The fats of

the afternoon Tamid offering of

Shabbat—

are offered on Yom Kippur

that falls on Saturday night; this is the statement of Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Yishmael says that they are not offered on it.

And

concerning this

Rabbi Zeira said: When we were in Rav’s

beyt-midrash

in Babylonia, I used to say

I thought that

that which was taught:

When Yom Kippur fell on the eve of Shabbat, they did not sound the blasts

on it before Shabbat, because there was no need to have the people cease from labor, as they were already abstaining by virtue of Yom Kippur’s cessation from labor.

And

likewise, if Yom Kippur fell

on Saturday night—

they did not recite havdala

on Saturday night over a cup, distinguishing between one sanctity and another, as havdala is recited on Saturday night between Shabbat and the festival that follows it, since the incoming Yom Kippur is as stringent as the departing Shabbat, in that labor is prohibited on both.

I thought that this beraita—

is accepted by everyone,

both by Rabbi Akiva and by Rabbi Yishmael, who disagree as to whether the fats of Shabbat are offered on Yom Kippur.

But

when I went up there,

when I went up to Eretz Yisrael,

I found Rabbi Yehuda, son of Rabbi Shimon ben Pazi, sitting and saying:

This beraita—

is Rabbi Akiva’s opinion!

But Rabbi Yishmael disagrees with him.

This indicates that Yom Kippur may indeed be adjacent to Shabbat; the dispute is only whether the fats of Shabbat are then offered on Yom Kippur or not!

We answer:

This is not difficult.

This—

our Mishna, which we interpreted as teaching that Yom Kippur is postponed so that it will not fall adjacent to Shabbat—

is the Rabbis’

opinion.

This—

the source from which we find that the fats of Shabbat are offered on Yom Kippur, indicating that they may be adjacent, since Yom Kippur is not postponed—

is the opinion of Aḥerim

Rabbi Meir]

.

For it was taught in a beraita that Aḥerim say:

It is impossible to intercalate the month of Elul in order to separate Shabbat and Yom Kippur, since the rule is:

Between one Shavuot and the next, and between one Rosh HaShana and the next

after dividing all the days of the year into weeks]

there is only

a difference of

four days.

And if it was a leap year—

five

days.

One may not add to this interval even when there is a need.

The following beraita raises an objection

to Rabbi Aḥa, who says that blasts are sounded for each and every musaf, from that which was taught:

When Rosh Ḥodesh falls on Shabbat—

the song of Rosh Ḥodesh takes precedence over the song of Shabbat.

And if it is so

that blasts are sounded for each and every musaf—

let him say

also the song

of Shabbat, and let him also say

also the song

of Rosh Ḥodesh!

Rav Safra said: What does “

the song of Rosh Ḥodesh

takes precedence over

the song of Shabbat”

mean? It means that it takes precedence in terms of being recited first,

as the song of Rosh Ḥodesh is recited before that of Shabbat!

And

we inquire about this:

Why?

But

that which is frequent and that which is not frequent—

the frequent takes precedence!

Rabbi Yoḥanan said:

They do this

to make it known that Rosh Ḥodesh was established in its proper time.

And we inquire about this:

And

when

do we make this sign?

But we make another sign!

For we learned in the Mishna: The fats of the morning Tamid

before they were burned on the altar—were

placed

on the ramp,

from the midpoint of the ramp downward, on the eastern side

of the ramp.

And

the fats

of the musaf offerings—

are placed from the midpoint of the ramp downward, on the western side

of the ramp.

And those of Rosh Ḥodesh—

are placed beneath the ledge of the altar and below.

This is in the upper half of the ramp.