Sukkot: Life in two dimensions - opinion

• Published date: 23 September 2021
• Author: WARREN GOLDSTEIN
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

I came across an answer to this mystery in the writings of one of our great sages from the Middle Ages, Rabbeinu Bechaya. Consider, he says, the four species we shake on Sukkot – the etrog, the fruit of a citron tree; the lulav, a date palm branch; hadassim, leaves from a myrtle tree; and aravot, leaves from a willow tree.

The common denominator, explains Rabbeinu Bechaya, is their connection to water. All four require a particularly large quantity of water to grow (the lulav grows in watered valleys; hadassim and aravot grow near rivers and lakes; and the etrog requires more water than other fruit trees). Additionally, all four, halachically, must be fresh for use during Sukkot. If they are dried out, you cannot use them.

cnxps.cmd.push(function () { cnxps({ playerId: '36af7c51-0caf-4741-9824-2c941fc6c17b' }).render('4c4d856e0e6f4e3d808bbc1715e132f6'); });

>

Water represents life: when we bring these four species together, we celebrate and thank Hashem [God] for the fact that we are alive.

Now the connection to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur becomes clear. On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we pray for many things. We pray for a good year, for a sweet year, for all of God's blessings. But, most fundamentally, we pray for life itself. The words of the mahzor are filled with so many rich examples. We ask Hashem: "The King, who desires life" to "remember us for life" and "write us in the book of life."

Hayim, hayim, hayim. Over and over again – that is what we pray for. Because life is a privilege and we never take it for granted.

And so comes along Sukkot, immediately after Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, when we have just confronted the fragility of our existence, and we thank Hashem for the very fact that we're alive; that we have breath in our lungs and energy in our bodies. We bring together the four species, as fresh as can be, filled with as much moisture as possible, and we thank God for the life that He has given us.

We take them and we say the blessing of shehecheyanu: "Blessed are you Hashem, who has kept us alive, sustained us and brought us to this time." Despite the continued challenging circumstances, this is nevertheless a time of pure celebration and joy – the kind of joy that elicits a shehecheyanu.

This year, after all we...