Study Sukkah folio 33B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
If the berries are distributed in two or 3 places, the myrtle branch is speckled with different colors in different places. It lacks beauty and is certainly unfit.
Rather, emend the text: If this statement was stated, it was stated as follows: Or, if its berries were more numerous than its leaves, it is unfit. Rav Ḥisda said: This statement was stated by our great rabbi, Rav, and may God come to his assistance: The rabbis taught this halakha only with rega
Rav Pappa said: The legal status of red berries is like that of black ones, as R' Ḥanina said: In the case of menstrual blood, this black blood is actually red blood, except that it deteriorated. Red and black are considered two shades of the same color.
§ The Mishnah continues: If he diminished their number, it is fit. The Talmud asks: This is a case where he diminished their number when? If you say that he did so before he bound the lulav, it is obvious that it is fit. When he performs the mitzva with it, the leaves outnumber the berries. Rather,
The Talmud rejects this suggestion: Actually, it is a case where he diminished the number of berries after he bound it. And that Sage holds that binding does not render the 3 bound species a lulav used for a mitzva. Rather, it is mere designation of the species for the mitzva, and mere designation