What We Can Learn About Politics from the Lulav and Etrog

by Nina Fondiller Woldin

Last Wednesday, just before Sukkot, I returned from a 6-week trip across the country and back. My holiday experiences included a wide range of synagogues, underscoring the spectrum of Jewish beliefs and practices. Let me share them with you!

For Rosh Hashana we attended a synagogue in Los Angeles founded by Hollywood writers targeted during the McCarthy Era. As you might have guessed, we heard the shofar, but did not hear any mention of God. Jewish culture was alive in this very welcoming synagogue. They have a Hebrew school and are very concerned with the future of the Jewish people. 

Yom Kippur was spent in Denver at a tiny, very spiritual and again, very welcoming, orthodox synagogue. There was a mechitza and I enjoyed watching the tops of my husband and my future son-in-law’s heads popping up and down as they danced with the men. Honestly, I never experienced a Yom Kippur with dancing before. Of course, the future of the Jewish people was of utmost importance to this congregation as well.

On the way back, we stopped in Pittsburgh and visited a friend who told us about her synagogue where there is a tri-chitza (men, women, and non-binary). By now I think you are probably guessing my point: the Jewish people have a broad spectrum of beliefs, but we are all still Jewish.

 

 

What do the lulav and etrog have to do with this?

Now, you might ask, What do the lulav and etrog have to do with this? Or, you might remember that they carry the message of unity and the importance of belonging to a community.

There is a midrash that the four species (palm, citron, myrtle, and willow) symbolize four types of Jews, with differing levels of Torah knowledge and observance. The etrog or citron represents a person who studies Torah and fulfills the mitzvot, the lulav or palm represents one who studies Torah but does not perform mitzvot, the myrtle or hadas represents one who fulfills mitzvot but does not study Torah, and the willow or aravah represents a person who neither studies Torah nor observes mitzvot. Bringing them together represents our unity as a nation — despite our obvious, though external, differences.

With election day only two weeks away, let’s take this midrash to heart. We are a small community threatened by the immediate and pressing issues of the war in Israel and rising antisemitism worldwide. Let’s remember the message of the lulav and etrog, put our differences aside, support each other, and emerge stronger and more united!