The Four Species

Ritual Objects

The four species are four plants associated with the holiday of Sukkot. The commandment to gather the four species originates in Leviticus 23:40. Rabbinic sources discuss the exact meaning of each of the phrases in the verse and ultimately identify the four species as: the etrog (citron fruit), lulav (closed frond of a palm tree), hadas (myrtle bough) and aravah (willow branch).

Notable Sources

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Take for Yourselves the Four Species

TANAKH

The festival of Sukkot requires the use of two special objects — the sukkah and the four species. In this passage from Leviticus, the Torah commands us to take the four species on the days of the harvest celebration.

Mark, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the yield of your land, you shall observe the festival of יהוה [to last] seven days: a complete rest on the first day, and a complete rest on the eighth day. On the first day you shall take the product of hadar trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before your God יהוה seven days. You shall observe it as a festival of יהוה for seven days in the year; you shall observe it in the seventh month as a law for all time, throughout the ages.

Leviticus 23:39-41

The Symbolic Union of the Jewish People

MIDRASH

The four species — consisting of the lulav (date palm), aravot (willow), hadasim (myrtle), and etrog (citron) — are central ritual objects of Sukkot. Vayikra Rabbah, a late antique midrashic collection from the land of Israel, explains the symbolism of these four species and their ritual union.

Another matter: “The fruit of a pleasant [hadar] tree” – this is Israel; just as the citron has taste and has fragrance, so Israel has people among them who have Torah and have good deeds. “Branches of date palms” – this is Israel; just as the date palm has taste but has no fragrance, so Israel has people among them who have Torah but do not have good deeds. “A bough of a leafy tree” – this is Israel; just as the myrtle has fragrance but has no taste, so Israel has people among them who have good deeds but do not have Torah…

Vayikra Rabbah 30:12

Identifying the Four Species

MIDRASH

The Torah’s description of the four species to be taken on Sukkot is sufficiently unclear that it left generations of Jews puzzled over which species they should be. This fanciful early medieval narrative midrash (biblical interpretation) claims that even the wise King Solomon did not know which species they were.

(Lev. 23:40:) “And you shall take for yourselves on the first day.” After all the wisdom which is ascribed to Solomon (since according to I Kings 5:11), “He was the wisest of all people,” he left everything and sat wondering about these four species. This is related (to Prov. 30:18), “Three things are too difficult for me; and four I do not understand.” These are the four species which are in the lulav, which he sought to understand. Now if you say that (in Lev. 23:40) the “beautiful tree fruit” is an ethrog, all trees bear fruit. (Ibid., cont.:) “Branches of palm trees…

Midrash Tanchuma, Emor 20:1

Fruit of a Beautiful Tree

TALMUD

The Torah describes one of the four species to be taken on Sukkot as the “fruit of the beautiful tree.” The rabbis of the Babylonian Talmud entertain different ways of figuring out exactly which tree God had in mind.

GEMARA: The Sages taught that the verse states: “Fruit of a beautiful tree,” meaning, a tree that the taste of its tree trunk and the taste of its fruit are alike. What tree is that? You must say it is the etrog tree. The Gemara asks: And say that it is referring to the pepper tree, since the taste of its trunk and the taste of its fruit are alike, as it was taught in a baraita with regard to the verse: “When you enter the land and plant any tree for food you shall regard its fruit as…

Sukkah 35a:1-5

Willows of the Brook

HALAKHAH

When speaking about the four species that are to be taken during Sukkot, the Torah describes them but does not specify which they are exactly. The Kol Bo, a medieval legal work, explains which willows of the brook (aravot) may be used to fulfill the commandment to take the four species.

The willows of the river that are mentioned in the Torah are not anything that grows from the river, but rather a specific species known as a river willow. Its leaves are elongated and their edges are smooth; and its branches are red. And that is what is called an aravah. And most of this species grows on rivers, and that is why it is called a river willow. But even if it grew in the desert or in the mountains, it is [still] fit. And there is another species that is similar to the willow, except that its leaves are round, and their edges are similar to a saw…

Kol Bo 72:3

Boughs of Leafy Trees

COMMENTARY

When the Torah instructs us to take “boughs of leafy trees” as one of the four species for Sukkot, what species does it mean? The renowned late eleventh-century northern French biblical commentator, Rashi, looks to the physical characteristics of a tree’s leaves in order to identify the species.

וענף עץ עבת AND BOUGHS OF THE TREE עבת — i. e. of a tree whose boughs are, as it were, plaited (intertwined one with another) like ropes (עבתות) and cords; this is the myrtle plant which is indeed formed as a plait (three leaves issuing from one point of the branch and covering it) (Sukkah 32b).

Rashi on Leviticus 23:40:4

How to Shake the Lulav and Etrog

HALAKHAH

The Torah specifies that the four species should be taken on Sukkot but doesn’t elaborate further. In Rambam’s twelfth-century legal code, the Mishneh Torah, he provides further guidance for fulfilling this mitzvah (commandment).

Once a person lifts up these four species - whether he lifts them up together or one after the other - whether in his right hand or in his left hand - he has fulfilled his obligation. [This applies] only when he lifts them up as they grow. However, if he does not lift them up as they grow, he has not fulfilled his obligation.
The fulfillment of the mitzvah as the law [requires is as follows]: One should lift up the three species as they are bound together in one's right hand and the etrog in one's left hand…

Mishneh Torah, Shofar, Sukkah and Lulav 7:9-10

Waving the Four Species During Hallel

MISHNAH

During the recitation of Hallel (psalms of praise), it is the common practice to wave the four species as certain verses are recited, but which verses? This mishnah from tractate Sukkot records different answers to this question.