ABSTRACT
How many branches shall the poor wave? On the basis of Scripture—this prescribes the waving of a bunch in connection to the commandment of building a “tabernacle” (sukkah) on the 15th of Tishrei (September–October), both in order to celebrate the end of harvest time and to commemorate the Exodus from the Land of Egypt (Lev 23:40–43)—this text enumerates how many plants are necessary for the bunch. After discussing three possible alternatives, the Mishnah appears not to reach a conclusive point on the matter. This issue is then discussed further in Babylonian Talmud Sukkah 34b which also treats a case of economic speculation: the overpricing of myrtle in connection with the commandment of waving “four species” during the Festival of Tabernacles. The Talmud provides a solution by intervention of a rabbinic authority: Mar Samuel of Nehardea, who threatens the myrtle sellers to prescribe that three myrtles can be woven “even if” they are “cut off”—just as Rabbi Tarfon had ruled in Mishnah Sukkah 3:4. Accordingly, the poor would be allowed to buy snapped-off myrtle plants that are less expensive and thus less profitable; as an implicit consequence of the narrative, the myrtle sellers stopped their economic speculation. The text does not provide a justification for the decision to contrast this case of economic speculation but the context clearly suggests that the intention was to preserve religious observance and social equity by lowering the prices in order to protect the poor.
