It Takes All Kinds

Of the four species, two produce fruit and two do not; those which produce fruit require those which do not, and those which do not require those which do. One cannot fulfill his obligation unless they are all held together.          Babylonian Talmud, Menaḥot, 27a

            The four species represent the entire spectrum of the Jewish People, from the best to the worst, those who fulfill their obligations to God and to man and those who do not.

            The etrog both produces fruit and has aroma, it is an edible fruit and also has a pleasant aroma, symbolizing those who fulfill the mitzvot between man and fellow-man as well as between man and God.

            My father explained that the four species symbolize four groups within the nation of Israel. Some people are selective in their observance. Some are charitable and fulfill their duties to their fellow man, but not to God, while others fulfill their duties to God, but not to their fellow men. These groups are represented by the lulav, which bears fruit, but has not aroma, and by the hadass, which has an aroma but not fruit.

            Others fulfill neither the mitzvot between man and fellow-man nor between man and God, and are represented by the aravot, which have neither fruit nor aroma.

            Fulfilling the mitzva requires all four species, if any of the four is missing, even the lowly arava, the mitzva cannot be fulfilled. Further, in performing the mitzva of the four species, all four must be held together, symbolizing the unity of the Jewish People.

            Our Sages chose their words carefully when they stated that “those which produce fruit require those which do not, and those which do not require those which do,” Klal Yisrael is composed even of the sinners, without whom the collective Israel is incomplete. This point is stressed again by the halacha that the species must be taken “derech gidulo,” each in the way it grows (not upside-down). The less righteous must be included even before they repent their sins.

            Our Sages taught that the four species symbolize Israel’s “victory” in being inscribed in the Book of Life on Yom Kippur. Just as the victorious army marches with its weapons, so Israel marches with lulav and etrog. Israel’s greatest weapon is its unity and that is the source of its victory.