[Avodah] Geklapte Hoshaynes

[Zev Sero]

In Yiddish there's nothing so useless as a "geklapte hoshayne".  Once
someone has taken that bundle of five twigs and beat the ground with them
five times, they have no use at all until Pesach, when they're used to
feed the fire for baking matzos or burning chametz (I forget which, or
whether it matters).

And yet, is this really so?  Five whacks against the ground is usually
not enough to make an arava pasul, and it's certainly not likely to make
all five aravot in the bundle pasul, so why shouldn't someone else use it?
I understand that in shul the custom is for everyone to buy their own, so
everyone can do the beating at the same time, or perhaps to provide more
income for the gabai (whose traditional prerogative it was to sell them),
but is there really a reason why a family can't buy just one bundle (or
perhaps two in case some of the aravot do become pasul after a while)
and each whack it in turn?

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas