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They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty—
and I will meditate on your wonderful works. Psalm 145:5 |
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The Beautiful fruit of the beautiful tree
On the first day you are to take choice fruit of trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and rejoice before ADONAI your God for seven days.
Leviticus 23:40
I am lingering a little in the fragrance of the fruit called an etrog, which is a fruit associated with the Feast of Sukkot. It has a fragrance that reaches my heart with the love of G-d and speaks of His Majesty. I know, a heart cannot exactly `smell`, and a fragrance does not `speak`, but this fruit makes me think outside of the regular dimensions, and stretches my senses, that is how divine the fragrance is! I hope to release even a little of that fragrance here in a blog post.
In the verse that introduces the commandment to rejoice for Sukkot (Lev. 23:40 above), there is the mention of taking 4 species. One of them as you can see in the verse (and in the photos as represented by the etrog), is the "choice fruit of the trees". The Jewish sages have a discussion on this `choice fruit`, or sometimes translated as `beautiful fruit`. They ask the question, does the modifier `beautiful` describe the fruit , or does it describe the tree? That is the midrashic question around this fruit.
I don`t know the grammatical answer, but what spoke to me was the word itself in the Hebrew that describes the fruit, or the tree. The word is HADAR. It ultimately modifies and points us to the Majesty of the LORD God Almighty Himself!
This word, HADAR, הֲדַר~ which modifies the fruit or fruit tree, actually means splendor, honor, ornament, majesty!
The first time the word HADAR is used in the Torah (in all of the bible) is here in Leviticus 23:40, and after that we see this word HADAR is used to describe God`s splendor and majesty. We sometimes see it paired with HOD or KAVOD, as it speaks of God`s glory and His majesty.
הֲדַר, כְּבוֹד הוֹדֶךָ-- וְדִבְרֵי נִפְלְאֹתֶיךָ אָשִׂיחָה
They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty—
and I will meditate on your wonderful works. Psalm 145:5
The four species together are also said to represent different parts of the body. The fruit which is called an Etrog represents the heart. The palm leaves the spine, the myrtle the eyes, and the willow the lips.
Taken together we can see how they represent worshiping God with our whole self, with every part of us, as in Deuteronomy 6:4,
Love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Connecting back to the Garden and forward to the Redemption!
We recently started in a new Torah cycle from the book of Genesis. When I read about the fruit, that Eve took when tempted by the serpent, I noticed how It was described as pleasing to the eye.
I was thinking when I read it this time of this description of `pleasing to the eye`, as compared to the beauty of the fruit in Leviticus 23:40. That which represents the deepest expression of God`s majesty, and His beauty that we see from the heart, is something that He reveals when we seek after intimacy with HIm... with all our heart.
I felt that G-d was speaking about how growing in obedience to Him is a way in which we grow into seeing His majesty and splendor.
Those are some of my Succah reflections and fragrant beginnings. As we start a new Torah cycle, we are already in the third Parsha (Torah Portion)! I will hope to catch up a little to where we are now, going into `Vayera` , which means `And He appeared` and comes from the root word `To see`!!
If anyone would like to join in following the Torah portions together, please let me know in the comment or in an e-mail (ahavaprayerandmovement@gmail.com). I send out a weekly AHAVA Parsha Prayer Sheet, which gives a short introduction to the Parsha and scriptures related to the weekly portion to pray for your loved ones, schools, community, and for Israel!
Blessings and LOVE ~ AHAVA!
Love,
Shayndel
Splendor and majesty are before Him.
Strength and beauty are in His Sanctuary.
Psalm 96:6
PS Interestingly, after I wrote this post, I found that it was not just my discovery about the fruit representing God`s majesty!! I saw this article on a Jewish website describing how each element is also describing an aspect of G-d, and relating to a verse in the Tanakh! I love that when the Holy Spirit leads us to our own discoveries, and then after we find the discovery that was already made!!
Each species has a particular reference to God, according to a Midrash
in Leviticus Rabbah, 83: the etrog is symbolic of Psalm 104:1: “You are
clothed in glory and majesty”; the palm is used because it is said
Psalms 92:13: “The righteous bloom like date-palm”; the myrtle signifies
Zechariah 1:8: “And he stood among the myrtle-trees”; the willow is
significant because it is written in Psalms 68:5: “Extol Him who rides
on the clouds (aravot), the Lord is His name.”
PS notes to myself:
put a few photos of the succah here!
Article HERE for how to make a fragrant spice box out of an etrog after Sukkot !!
