For the source text click/tap here: Sukkah 43
To download, click/tap here: PDF
The commandment of the aravah does not appear explicitly in the Torah, and several possible sources are cited, among them that it is a halakha l’Moshe mi-Sinai or that it was established by the prophets. In any case, the Sages felt that it was so important that it was to take place even when the seventh day of the holiday fell out on Shabbat. This ruling disturbed the Baitusim, who went so far as to hide the aravot that had been prepared for use on Shabbat. The Gemara relates that the aravot were uncovered by the local people who handed them to the kohanim to use.
The Baitusim were one of the deviant sects during the second Temple period who did not accept the ruling of the Sages. The Gemara does not make clear what differences existed between the Baitusim and the Tzedukim, although from the stories that appear it is the Baitusim who tried to use trickery in order to uproot the rules of the Sages and impose their rulings on the populace.
We explore another episode of trickery and betrayal in the history of the Venetian community and the tragic history of the troubled Scuola Canton and the pain and suffering caused by the converts….down to our own times during the Nazi deportations.