Holiday

Looking for some insights or new rituals for an upcoming holiday? Here we post practical, easy to use guidelines for the holy days, both Jewish and American, that mark the way stations along the circle of the year.

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Waving The Lulav And Etrog…

Once a traveling Jew was offered a thousand gold coins from the Emperor in return for an Etrog. "That Etrog is the most beautiful I have ever seen in my life." the Emperor remarked. The Jew needed the money, but would not sell the Etrog. "This Etrog," the Jew said, "is a symbol of joy, why should I sell joy for something that only promises joy?"

Meditation:

As I lift up these symbols of life on Sukkot, commemorating our wanderings in the desert and the fall harvest, I reach out to You, and You are everywhere. You sustain life in each direction—across the seas, in the deserts, on mountain tops and ice caps, skyward to the clouds, deep down in the earth’s soil, and to the cosmos which frame them all.

Ritual:

Standing with the etrog in your left hand, stem down, and the lulav in your right, place your hands together. After reciting the blessings, stretch out your arms and shake three times in each of the six directions (first to the East, then South, West, North, up and down).

Blessing:

(As you hold the lulav and etrog in your hands:)

Barukh atah Adonai melekh ha’olam, asher kidshanu b’mitzvotav al nitilat lulav.

Blessed is the Holy One who makes us holy and instructs us to raise up the lulav.

(When you make this blessing for the first time on this Sukkot:)

Barukh atah she’hechiyanu v’keyemanu v’hegiyanu lazman hazeh.

Blessed is the Holy One who has given us life, sustained us, and brought us into this moment.

Teaching:

On the first day, you shall take the fruit of the hadar trees (an etrog or citron), branches of palm trees (lulav), boughs of leafy trees (hasdassim) and mytles, and willows of the brook (aravot), and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. (Leviticus 23:40)

Each species is an allusion to the Holy One. Of the palm branch, we read

"The righteous bloom like a date palm" (Psalms 92:13) of the Etrog "You are clothed in glory and majesty" (Psalms 104:1) of the myrtle "And he stood among the myrtle trees" (Zechariah 1:8) and of the willow "Extol him who rides on the willows" (Psalms 68:5)

(Leviticus Rabbah 83)

It is considered a special mitzvah to get an aesthetically attractive etrog. The etrog is unfit if it is dried up, spotted, punctured, smaller than a walnut, or if its pitum (protuberance at the tip opposite the stem) has been broken off.

(Yitz Greenberg, The Jewish Way)

Then the next night my orthodox rabbi friend brought over a lulav and etrog for me to hold and wave in praise of God’s goodness for keeping me alive. It was a wonderful symbol of friendship to me….

(Hirshell Jaffe, Why Me? Why Anyone?)

(CLAL Faculty)

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