Terumah

The passuk in this week’s parsha says, “ ועשית ... עצי שטים עומדים " - "And you shall make the planks for the mishkan of acacia wood, standing erect ” (26:15). The gemarah (succah 45b) learns from " עצי שטים עומדים " that every mitzvah must be performed דרך גדילתן - the way they naturally grow.  This means that in order to fulfill our obligation the mitzvah item which we are using must be in an upright position; the upper part (as it grew) toward the top, and the lower part to the bottom. Should one hold the item upside down, he will not have fulfilled his obligation.
This is the source for the interesting custom we have regarding the mitzvah of lulav and esrog.

The gemarah (succah 42a) says that as soon as one picks up his four minim he has already fulfilled his obligation.

Therfore, with regard to the brachah we make on them, the rishonim are bothered by an apparent 'catch 22' situation.
The gemarah (pisachim 7b) says that the bracha on every mitzvah must be made " עובר לעשייתן" - prior to their perfomance.
A second gemarah (minachos 35b) states that one should not make the bracha while the item is still on the table, rather it must be held in his hand in order to make a bracha.

What then is the proper procedure in making the bracha on the mitzvah of lulav?
On the one hand we want to make the bracha before we perform the mitzvah. However, with the mitzvah of lulav & esrog That would mean we should make the beracha before we even pick them up since after that point we would have already been yotzei the mitzvah! On the other hand we can’t make the beracha before we pick it up as the gemarah in minachos said that the mitzvah item should be in our hands!

Tosafos (succah 39a) offers a solution, which is to pick up the esrog upside down. That way, as mentioned above one is not yet yotzai , and so, he can make the bracha with the items in hand, while it is still  עובר לעשייתן - prior to the mitzvah. Then, turn it right side up to perform the mitzvah correctly.

The Vilna Goan (או''ח ס' תר''נב  ה) asks as follows. We paskin ( תר''נב  יב ) that one does not have to take all of the four minim at once, rather he can take them individually one after another. If so, when one picks
up only the esrog upside down (as we do) he is still taking the other three minim correctly. At that point he will have fulfilled his obligation of the other three minim and the bracha is being made after their performance! If so, we're back to square one - how can one make the bracha prior to performing the mitzvah and still have them in his hand at the time of the bracha?

The Bach answers, that while it’s true that one could take each one of the four minim separately, one has not fulfilled his obligation until he has takes the very last one, for they are all part of one mitzvah. (Only after he has taken all four of them will he have retroactively fulfilled his obligation.) Therefore, being that until he takes the esrog right side up, he has not yet correctly held the fourth min, he has not yet fulfilled his obligation, and so, making a bracha at that point would be considered prior to the mitzvah.

It is now difficult to comprehend what was bothering the Vilna Goan! How can t he ask that you are already yotzai lulav before taking the esrog with it? Surely he agrees with the Bach that the fulfillment of the mitzvah is not until after all four minim have been taken.

I would like to suggest that of course the Vilna Goan agrees that one is not  yotzai until
he has taken all of the four minim. I think that the dispute that the Vilna Goan has
with the Bach is whether the requirement to make the bracha prior to a mitzvah applies even
before the act of the mitzvah - even though the mitzvah has not yet been fulfilled, or it must be only preceding the fulfillment of the mitzvah but it can be after the actual act has been performed.

The Bach holds that so long as I have not fulfilled my mitzvah I can still make a bracha, even though I have already done the act to the first three minim..

The Vilna Goan holds that the bracha must be made prior to the action of the mitzvah as well. Since
in the Bach's suggestion the act of the three minim is already complete, the Vilna Goan argues that it is not considered עובר לעשייתן.
Tosafos however is not bothered by this, so long as the mitzvah has not yet been fulfilled, the brachah is still considered עובר לעשייתן.

{R.F.}

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