Sukka 39a, b

It is confirmed that we recite our blessings before we perform a mitzvah.  Even so, the rabbis argue whether or not this is the case regarding the mitzvah of lulav.

A new Mishna helps us with a halachic question.  If we buy a lulav from an am ha'aretz during a Sabbatical year, the seller throws in the etrog free of charge.  This is because we are not permitted to buy or sell Shevi'it, Sabbatical-Year produce.  My immediate questions: wouldn't the sellers jack up the price of the lulav on Sabbatical years to cover their losses on etrogim?  And why does this apply specifically to the am ha'aretz?  Is this because they might not know the laws and thus a reminder?  Let's see what the Gemara has to say.

I was close in my guesses.  Not sophisticated enough, of course, but moving in the direction of the rabbis.  They ask, what if a seller does not wish to give the etrog as a gift?  The answer?  Raise the price of the lulav to incorporate the cost of the etrog.  And why go through this farce?  Because we are unsure whether the am ha'aretz will appropriately guard the halachot of Sheviit.  Interestingly, am ha'aretz are permitted to sell enough food to purchase three meals with their earnings.  This would imply that the rabbis were helping regular people to have enough substenance to survive over Shabbat.

Some rabbis argue that fruit from fields that were safeguarded over Shevi'it were not to be used.  Those who harvested the fields declared 'ownerless' would be paid on Shevi'it, but only for the harvesting and not for the cost of the produce itself.  Some rabbis say that we can eat fruit from fields declared 'ownerless'.  Others believe that we could eat fruit from fields safeguarded by Gentiles only.

Rav Sheshet wonders about the fruits not subject to Shevi'it.  Why should we have to pay only three meals worth of money to someone who has harvested food that is ownerless?  There is a question as to whether or not these particular foods are capable of sustaining life.  To understand sustenance as a concept, the rabbis turn to our understandings of manna.

Finally, the Gemara wonders why we do not treat the purchase of lulav with the same scrutiny?  This launches a conversation about when different types of food are considered to be Sabbatical produce.  Etrogim take a long time to grow and then ripen.  They grow from rainwater enhanced by irrigation.  They can grow at any time of year and not in limited seasons.  Finally, they do not fall to the ground - the must be picked.  In the end, the status of the etrog is determined at the time of picking the fruit from its tree. The lulav, in contrast, is said to have grown in the sixth year rather than the seventh.

In which ways is the etrog like a vegetable?  This conversation is opened at the end of our daf.

Did regular people, the am ha'aretz, benefit from the Shevi'it?  Or did they resent this requirement of extra work, uncertain income and the potential drama of these changes?