Teaching the young child about the lulav.

Taking the lulav indeed appears to be a strange ceremony, perhaps less strange to the child than to the adult. So much so that I heard a radio interviewer ask a professor of literature if he, as an adult doesn't consider the whole childish custom rather inappropriate.

The professor gave a full explanation of the what the lulav meant to him but didn't really answer the interviewer's question which was really what is the universal meaning of taking the lulav.

Adults can have their own private interpretations but children understand symbols that have universal application. A child can't really understand the intellectual reasoning of an individual adult.

Children need to learn the real, universal meaning of symbols. Symbols are after all universal signs that have the same meaning for all. For example letters of the alphabet are symbols that the child learns to identify and so can communicate thoughts, descriptions, desires etc.

Can we really see the lulav as a symbol that has the same meaning for everyone? The very fact that we ask the question about the symbolism of the lulav is a sign that it's not as well learnt as the alphabet and other symbols which the individual is taught once and for all and there's no need to repeat the explanation ever again.

One thing is for sure: There was once an event experienced by a great number of people which was so pleasurable that they wanted to repeat the experience.

This event was the trek through the wilderness. If they could they'd get into a time machine and would go back to the days when they were in the Sinai Desert, which was a fearful place of wild people and animals, no water and no food.

Yet they felt absolutely secure and even happy. They felt so sure that they were being protected by a mighty God that they didn't even have to hide in caves or build strong fortresses around themselves, as one would do when he felt threatened by dangerous enemies. Instead they walked proudly with banners flying so that they could be seen from far off.

Nobody had any problem in finding them. If an enemy wanted to attack them, it was as if they were daring the enemy to try and attack them. Instead of living in houses or caves where they would be protected from their enemies they lived in booths, flimsily made out of palm branches that could be toppled over by the slightest wind and washed away by the tiniest storm. Only people who felt absolutely safe and secure from all danger would dare to live like that.

It was that feeling of safety which people wanted to return to. They were sure that it was because they had a mighty God who protected them; the same God who was so mighty that He created the heaven and the earth.

How could they explain their good fortune in having such a mighty God to protect them? They really felt that the only answer could be that the mighty God had chosen them and as long as He favored them He would protect them from all harm.

I compare the feeling of the Jews to the feeling I had as a child and, I believe many children have. I distinctly remember feeling very secure in my childhood. I was certain no harm could come to me even though we lived in quite a hostile neighborhood in South Africa and every day found me confronted by another bully who tried to beat me up and chased me all the way home. The danger was always present. Sometimes it was from a bad storm. Sometimes it was from illness but somehow I always survived. I didn't attribute this to my own courage, wisdom or strength but to God's power which I felt had specially chosen me to be protected from danger.

I believe that it was these feelings of security that caused me to become religious. I think it's because I wanted to thank God and because I wanted to make sure that God would carry on protecting me.

The symbol of the lulav is the strength of God which stands by us in times of weakness. God's loyalty, strength and upright honesty is symbolized by the lulav, the young, straight, upright, new branch of a palm tree which stands in the middle of the 4 species as God stands in the middle of the universe, surrounded by frail human beings and the world, symbolized by the myrtle branch, the willow branch and the etrog, a fruit that is completely devoid of any edible, nourishing substances. These three, standing around the lulav are weak but the lulav is strong and will take care of the all the weak ones, just as God protects all human beings no matter what their qualities. He protects them if they are pretty like the myrtle. He protects them if they are plain like the willow branch and He protects them even if they are boastful and beautiful on the outside but are empty inside. Their beauty is only skin deep.

Everybody depends on God no matter what kind of person he is.

When we wish you a "Happy Festival" we mean to tell each other that happiness comes from within ourselves. We make ourselves happy. Even people who think that they have sinned must make themselves happy because they have repented on the Day of Atonement and they asked their fellow man for forgiveness. They also can't use their weaknesses as an excuse to be unhappy. God has chosen everybody so let's all be happy on this wonderful festival of Sukkot.

Be happy on your festival is a commandment not a wish that we may or may not receive from God.

Yours truly.

Leon Gork.