digestVidSign in
summary

Rabbi YY Jacobson - Why These Four Species?

Thumbnail of the video “Rabbi YY Jacobson - Why These Four Species?”
Community upload. AI output has not been independently verified.
Author: Rabbi YY Jacobson
Categories: Science Health
Tags: science, health
Views: 2 · Last viewed: 2026-10-16 10:03 UTC

Short Summary

Main recommendation: On Sukkot, use the four species (the esrog, lulav, hadas, and arava) as a reminder to connect your own heart, spine, eyes, and mouth to the patriarchs and Joseph, asking whose heart, spine, eyes, and mouth you are actually using. The speaker frames the choice of these four as deliberate: out of roughly 390,900 known plant types, these four were selected for the holiday, and tradition has long asked why.

Key Points

  • The speaker cites Royal Botanical Gardens estimates of about 390,900 plant types, roughly 2,000 edible, about 200 in world commerce, and about 15 main human staples, to stress how unusual it is that these four were chosen.
  • Rashi's interpretation links the four species to four personalities: the esrog to Yisrael who has both taste and fragrance, the hadas to Avraham, the lulav to Yitzchak, and the arava (willow) to Joseph.
  • The speaker explains the arava's link to Joseph: the willow has no taste and dries up first on the lulav, and the Midrash's line that Joseph died before his brothers is presented as the reason it is given dignity.
  • A second Midrash links the four species to body parts: the esrog to the heart, the lulav to the spine, the hadas leaf to the eye, and the arava leaf to the mouth (matching Avraham's heart, Yitzchak's spine, Yaakov's eyes, and Joseph's mouth).
  • The speaker argues the two interpretations are interconnected, so the four organs and four personalities mirror each other.

Details Worth Noting

  • Concrete instructions: On the first day of Sukkot, take a beautiful fruit from a tree (the esrog), a palm frond (the lulav), a myrtle branch (the hadas), and willow branches (the arava), and hold them together.
  • Concrete instructions: Hold the lulav with the spine connected, and check the willows the next morning, since they often dry out first; the speaker says he replaced his willows the previous day for this reason.
  • Concrete instructions: While holding the four species, ask yourself whose heart, spine, eyes, and mouth you have: Avraham's heart (esrog), Yitzchak's spine (lulav), Yaakov's eyes (hadas), and Joseph's mouth (arava).
  • The Yaakov link is drawn from the hadas being full of leaves, paralleling Yaakov being blessed with many children.
  • The Yitzchak link is drawn from the lulav's branches being bound to the spine, paralleling Yitzchak being bound on the altar at the Akeidah.
  • The speaker states the four species are not just physical body parts but represent the patriarchs and Joseph, linking the holiday's ritual to personal character.

Bottom Line

The four species are meant to be read as a set of personal and ancestral reminders, not just ritual objects: each one ties a body part to a figure from Jewish tradition whose qualities the holiday asks you to reflect on.