Is A Shortened Lulav Kosher?
‘Remnants of Tzitzis Are Kosher’
(Menachos 38b)
When purifying a tamei meis, one sprinkles him with water mixed with ashes of the parah adumah by means of a bunch of hyssop branches, which must be a certain size. Our Gemara says that if after one has sprinkled someone with a hyssop, parts fell off and it no longer is the minimum size, it may still be used for sprinkling since “the remnants of a hyssop are kosher.”
The same rule applies to tzitzis. If they were once the proper length but later were torn, they are kosher as “the remnants of tzitzis are kosher.” The Gemara says we do not apply this rule to the straps of tefillin because “they are for holy usage” (as opposed to tzitzis which are for “mitzvah usage”).
But why doesn’t this rule apply to a lulav that was originally kosher but later was cut so that it is now less than four handbreadths long? And why doesn’t it apply to a shofar that was originally kosher but was later reduced to less than four thumb breadths long?
A Matter Of Lishmah
Rabbi Shlomo Kluger, zt”l, asked this question and the Chasam Sofer, zt”l (Responsa, Y.D. 256), answered it as follows: Tzitzis strings must be woven for the sake of the mitzvah (l’shem mitzvas tzitzis). A shofar and lulav, though, need not be made specifically for a mitzvah.
Since tzitzis were made for the sake of a mitzvah, their intrinsic designation never leaves them – it is an inseparable part of them – even if they later become too short. In contrast, since a lulav or a shofar is not made for the sake of a mitzvah, it becomes unfit once its size is reduced beyond the minimum.
A Broad Mind
This explanation, though, does not explain why a hyssop can still be used once it no longer is the minimum size. After all, a hyssop need not be made for the sake of its mitzvah.
The Chasam Sofer raises this question and concludes: “let someone whose mind is broader than mine tell us a proper solution, and we shall receive it with love.”
Point Of Obligation
The Or Same’ach (Hilchos Lulav 7:8) addresses the rule of “the remnants of a mitzvah are kosher” from a completely different standpoint. In his opinion, this rule applies to objects with which a mitzvah was fulfilled properly that can now be used to fulfill a new obligation but have become too small in the meantime. An obligation, though, that arose before the object became too small must be observed only with an object of proper size.
Let us now apply this rule: On the morning of the first day of Sukkos, everyone becomes personally obligated to fulfill the mitzvah of lulav. If one person takes up a lulav at sunrise and another takes it up before sunset, both have observed the obligation they incurred with the arrival of morning – to take up the lulav one time.
However, the mitzvah of tzitzis is different: It is not an obligation from which one becomes exempt upon its performance since the mitzvah renews itself every moment. A person who dons tzitzis at seven in the morning and another who puts them on in the afternoon do not observe the same obligation – one observed the obligation of one moment and the other observed the obligation of another moment.
Recurring Obligation
That’s why if someone puts on tzitzis in the morning and they later become “remnants,” he may continue to wear them – since new tzitzis obligations are arising after they became remnants.
However, someone who wants to take up a lulav in the afternoon that was kosher in the morning and served its mitzvah may not do so with a remnant of that lulav, as he is only now observing the obligation he incurred in the morning, and at that time the lulav could not be a remnant as no one had fulfilled that day’s mitzvah with it yet.
Finally, sprinkling with a hyssop is not a personal obligation but part of a taharah procedure that begins for each individual at the time of sprinkling. When it breaks after one sprinkling, it thus becomes a mitzvah remnant usable for another (see Chazon Yechezkel, Sukkah 5:9, who devotes a long discussion to this halacha).