The Mitzvah & Blessing for Waving the Lulav
"Blessed are you, Adonai, Ruler of Everything, who makes us holy through your mitzvot, and who commanded us to raise up the lulav."
Originally, during the Temple era, the lulav was taken in the Temple for seven days, and in the rest of the country outside the Temple it was taken for one day. Once the Temple was destroyed, leaders instituted a rule that the lulav should be taken even in the rest of the country for seven days, in commemoration of the Temple.
Four Species and the Four Letters in God’s Name
The four species can represent the four-letter Name of God, יהוה. Because God is One, we hold the four species together.
Each Species Connects to God
Each of the species is a hint or allusion to God, according to a Midrash
1. Etrog — (in Psalms 104: 1): ‘You are clothed in glory and majesty.’ (The word translated as majesty is hadar. In the Torah (Leviticus 23:40), the etrog is called the fruit of a hadar tree, a majestic tree.)
2. Palm — (in Psalms 92:13): ‘The righteous bloom like a date palm.’
3. Myrtle — (in Zechariah 1:8): ‘And he stood among the myrtle-trees.’
4. Willow — (in Psalms 68:5): ‘Praise Him who rides on the clouds [aravot], the Lord is His name.’ (The word aravot is the same word for willow and clouds.)
Species as Limbs
Each of the four relates to a particular limb with which a person can serve God
1. Etrog refers to the heart, the place of understanding and wisdom.
2. Palm refers to the backbone, uprightness.
3. Myrtle corresponds to the eyes, enlightenment.
4. Willow represents the lips, the service of the lips (prayer).
Next, say the blessing:
"Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu Melekh ha'olam, asher kiddeshanu bemitzvotav vitzivanu al netilat lulav."
Symbolism of Waving the Four Species
The motion and order of the wavings is highly significant.
- There is the joy, thanksgiving, and praise of God during the final fruit harvest.
- The directions are symbolic of divine rule over nature; God's presence everywhere.
- There is the representation of the fertility of the land and the desire for rain.
- This is also representative of our complete immersion in the holiday. The lulav becomes a way we can feel of peace and God’s presence from every direction.
Immediately after fulfilling the mitzva of taking the four species on the seventh day of the festival of Sukkot, children remove their lulavim from the binding and eat their etrogim as an expression of extreme joy.
The Mitzvah and Blessing for Sitting in the Sukkah
"Blessed are you, Adonai, Ruler of Everything, who makes us holy through your mitzvot, and who commanded us to sit or live in a sukkah."
"Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu Melekh ha'olam, asher kiddeshanu bemitzvotav ley shave ba'sukkah."
Simchat Beit HaShoeva: The Water-Drawing Celebration
How was the Water Offering done in the Temple during the Sukkot Festival? One would fill a golden jug with water from the Siloam Pool. When those who went to bring the water reached the Gate of the Water, shofar players sounded a tekia, a terua, and another tekia as an expression of joy. The priest went up the ramp of the altar and turned to his left. There were two silver basins there into which he poured the water.
The Pool of Siloam, in an Arab neighborhood in Jerusalem
The flute is played on the festival of Sukkot for five or six days. This is the flute of the Place of the Drawing of the Water. I tell you the truth, anyone who did not see the Celebration of the Place of the Drawing of the Water never really saw celebration in their whole life.
The pious and the men of action would dance before the people who attended the celebration, with flaming torches that they would juggle in their hands. They would sing songs and praise to God. And the Levites would play on lyres, harps, cymbals, and trumpets, and countless other musical instruments.
The most famous sage, Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, who presided over the supreme court of seventy elders, would juggle eight flaming torches—and never would one torch touch another.
(Mishnah Sukkah 5:4)
And this was the Ceremony of the Water Offering: Two priests stood at the Upper Gate with two shofarim in their hands. When the rooster crowed at dawn, they sounded a tekia, a terua, and a tekia.
When those who would draw the water reached the tenth stair the shofar players sounded a tekia, a terua, and a tekia, to let everyone know that that the time to draw water from the Siloam pool had arrived.
When those who drew the water returned from the Siloam pool with the basins of water in their hands, the trumpeters sounded a tekia, a terua, and a tekia. The shofar players continued sounding the shofarim until those carrying the water reached the gate the faces the rising sun, they turned from facing east to facing west, toward the Holy of Holies.
Then they said: Our ancestors who were in this place during the First Temple period who did not conduct themselves correctly, stood “with their backs toward the Sanctuary of the Lord, and their faces toward the east, and they worshipped the sun in the east” (Ezekiel 8:16).
But we, our eyes are to God. Rabbi Yehuda says that they would repeat and say: We are to God, and our eyes are to God.