Koisheklach

WE ARE ALL ONE

The arbaah minim represent four different types of Jews. An esrog has taste and smell, like a tzadik who has both Torah and mitzvos. The lulav has only taste, like someone with only Torah. The hadassim have only smell, like someone who only has mitzvos. And the aravos have no taste or smell, like someone without either Torah or mitzvos. But the Gemara says you need all four to do the mitzvah. Just an esrog, or just hadassim, won’t cut it. This teaches us something powerful: if we are missing even one Jew, we are incomplete. Every Jew, no matter what he looks like (or smells like!), is special and important.

KNOW ALEPH? TEACH ALEPH!

When we hold the arbaah minim, we hold the esrog next to the aravos. The esrog represents a Jew who knows Torah, and the aravos represent someone with none—no taste, no smell, “just an aravah.” This shows that if we have Torah, we should share it with others and not keep it to ourselves. The Lubavitcher Rebbe famously said, “If you know ‘alef’, teach ‘alef’! If you know ‘beis’, teach ‘beis’!” You don’t need to be the biggest tzadik to help someone learn. If you have Torah, like a sweet esrog, help someone else learn.

IN THE SHADE OF HASHEM

The sukkah is called “tzeila dihimnusa,” the “shade of emunah.” It’s all emunah! How? Sukkos brings us back to the Ananei HaKavod, the clouds that Hashem protected us with in the Midbar. We didn’t know what would be, but we followed Hashem with love. Hashem took care of our every need in those clouds, from food to laundry. In the Sukkah, we realize nothing has changed. If we open our eyes, we can see that Hashem takes care of everything we need and is always holding our hand.

DANCING WITH OUR DIFFICULTIES

A man was away from home for Simchas Torah and went to the local shul. There was dancing and singing, and then in the middle of the Hakafos, an older man brought out a plank of wood. Everyone grew quiet as they watched the old man walk around the plank. A few other older men joined him. They finished walking in a circle around the plank, and then the shul went back to its exuberant dancing. The visitor asked the man “Why did you walk around that plank?” He explained, “I was in the camps during the Holocaust. Someone smuggled a Sefer Torah into the camp. We knew if it was found, we’d be in big trouble, so we hid it underneath the floorboards. On Simchas Torah, we wanted to take it out, but it was far too dangerous. So we walked around the plank over the Torah in circles. No one could stop us from ‘dancing.’ Today, I have that plank, and I dance around it to remember that even when it feels so hard, we can dance with the Torah and learn the Torah.”

TORAH NEVER ENDS

Why do we dance in a circle? A circle has no end and no beginning; it keeps going around and around. So too, the Torah has no end. As soon as we finish, we go right back to Bereishis. And every time we go around, it gets more exciting and deeper. We remember that Torah is not limited to a shul or a school—it is always with us, guiding us how to live, and connecting us to Hashem.
— Rabbi Y.A.S.

A JEW IS A JEW

It is interesting that all of the arbaah minim have very specific halachos. An esrog cannot have certain dots or marks, a lulav must be closed at the top, and the hadassim should have leaves growing in the same row. But the aravos just need… to be aravos. We learn and grow and aim to be great. But sometimes a Jew feels like an aravah, not all that special. Still, a Jew is loved by Hashem always, for no other reason than simply because he is a Jew.