Tonight begins the joyous holiday of Sukkot.
Apart from eating and spending time in the Sukkah men are commanded to acquire the “Four Kinds”: three myrtle branches (hadassim), two willow twigs (aravot) , one palm frond (lulav) and one citron (Etrog)- which we bind together and then wave in six directions every day during the week of Sukkot ( except Shabbat).
The “Four Kinds” according to the Midrash correspond to four types of people and to four parts of the body:
– The Citron (Etrog) has both taste and aroma, it represents the person that learns and does mitzvah so. It also represents the heart.
-The palm (Lulav) has taste but no aroma, this represents the scholar who learns but doesn’t do mitzvahs. It also represents the spine.
-The myrtle(hadassim) is fragrant but has no taste and it represents the person that does mitzvahs but doesn’t learn Torah. In the body it represents the eyes because the leaves have the shape of the eye and they look upwards meaning that we should always should be looking up to H”S.
-The willow (aravot) have no aroma and no taste and it represents the person that neither learns nor achieves in his acts of love and kindness. In the body it represents the lips and the leaves look like lips for it is a reminder that our lips should only be used to speak words of kindness and Torah.
On Sukkot these “Four Kinds” are all bound together and shaken together and the message is that everyone is indispensable in the bigger plan of G-d and we each contribute to the other. Also when Jews are shaken no one is looking at who is who, we are all shaken together because in essence we are all one.
Chag Sukkot Sameach!!!
*if you look closely at the painting you will find lips and eyes in the leaves.
