RABBI'S MESSAGE
SUCCOT 2003/5764
By Rabbi Salomon Cohen-Scali
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We have just celebrated the Yamim Noraim (Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur) and as
your Rabbi I want to start by congratulating you each and every member of this great
synagogue for the peaceful and warm atmosphere we all enjoyed during the
meaningful services of those days. I feel really privileged to be the spiritual leader of
such a marvelous congregation.
Now we are about to celebrate the joyous holiday of Succot. One of the
characteristic features of Succot is the mitzvah of ARBA?AT HAMIMIN: THE
FOUR SPECIES over which we rejoice and bless the Lord. They are the ETROG:
CITRON, LULAV: PALM FRONDS, HADASS: MYRTLE and ARABA:
WILLOW.
There are many moral lessons we can learn from these four species but I find
especially relevant today the explanation that each one of them represents a different
type of Jew. We find among these four species one, the etrog, which has a good
flavor and aroma; and another that has a good flavor but no aroma, the lulav. The
third one, the hadass, has a good aroma but no flavor whatsoever; and finally, the
fourth, hadass, is one which has neither flavor nor smell.
Let no one think that we can fulfill the commandment by using only those which we
find better and rejecting the others, because there is a Halachic rule:
ARBA?AT HAMINIM MEAKBIM ZE ET ZE
Each of the four depends on the others and according to the Talmud when the Torah
says ULKACHTEM: YOU SHALL TAKE IT means you shall take off of them, the
four of them altogether.
That is the case with the children of Israel; some are learned and do good deeds;
others do good deeds but are not learned. While there may be others who in spite of
their knowledge do not match their deeds to their learning; and finally there are those
who neither have knowledge nor have good deeds.
However we learn from this precious Mitzvah the great lesson that every Jew counts
and no one can feel complete in the absence of the others.Regardless of our condition,
we all form part of this great and noble nation, AM YISRAEL. This is especially
relevant today when as a nation we are faced with the greatest challenges in our recent
history; never before have we been so threatened. But it is also true in our own
synagogue, each of us is a precious member of the group, each of us counts. If we
are inclusive and reject no one, together we can look at the future with hope and
optimism.
Raquel and I wish each and every one of you Moadim LeSimha.