The Holy Citron Fruit
Well, Sukkot is here. And as you may or may not know, there are two key parts to Sukkot: the sitting in a sukkah (or tabernacle, which is a temporary house with three walls and a ceiling of leaves) and the waving of the four species. The four species, as described by the Torah, are "the fruit of a goodly tree, branches of palm-trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brooks" (Leviticus 23:40). The four species are a citron, a small, lemon-like fruit; palm branches; three myrtle branches; and two willow branches. Usually sold as a set. I got mine through Jose Rosenfeld for NIS 100; I just didn't realize that my four species set only included three. I bought my willow the next day from a street merchant (apparently, selling the easily-drying willow separately is common practice in Israel). But at least I have all four.I opened my lulav just before the chag started, and was surprised to see how dead it looked, all brown and shriveled. When Jose asked me if I wanted M'hadar M'Hadrin (very nice, I think), I just told him I wanted a reasonably priced one. Not a dead one. And my aravot (willow branches) are also looking dry. I didn't realize there are only two types of lulav sets: expensive, and dead. The myrtle looked nice and fresh. Then I looked at the etrog. I wasn't quite sure what to do with it, so I asked a local rabbi. The following is an excerpt of that conversation:
ME:
How does it, um-- how does it work?
A LOCAL PASSERBY:
I know not, my liege.
ME:
Consult the Book of Shwarmaments!
RABBI MAYNARDSTEIN:
Shwarmaments, chapter two, verses nine to twenty-one.
GABBAI:
And Rav Attila Shlita raised the citron up on high, saying, 'O Lord, bless Thy citron that, with it, we mayest bless the Feast of Tabernacles in Thy mercy.' And the Lord did grin, and the people did feast upon the lambs and borscht and carp and anchovies and gefilte fish and breakfast cereals and fruit rolls and large chu--
RABBI MAYNARDSTEIN:
Skip a bit, gabbai.
GABBAI:
And the Lord spake, saying, 'First shalt thou not take out the Holy Pitom. Then, thou shall shake it six times. No more. No less. Six shall be the number thou shalt shake, and the number of the shaking shall be six. Seven shalt thou not shake, nor either shake thou five, excepting that thou then proceed to six. Eight is right out. Once the number six, being the sixth number be reached, then, carriest thou thy lulav towards thy bima to perform Hakafot.'
That's the last time I go to that shul for advice.
posted by Yoni Bain | 11:04 AM
3 Comments:
Yoni, Me again. Benjamin's mom. Ok, you asked for suggestions for pranks. I grew up with 4 boy cousins and a brother. We lived for pranks. One of my favorite we pulled repeatedly because my cousins aren't too quick: we hollowed out a fruit (grape) or some pop-in-the-mouth food and filled it with pure mustard, then watched whoever ended picking that grape to casually pop in their mouths. Stand back, spitting out is usually involved. Do not reveal your sources...
Yo Yoni,
Jeff Feld here. Cool blog (except when we read about what you had for breakfast that day..) How in the world did you do that photo of multiple you's and the lulav. Not THAT is way cool. How'd you do it??
Chag Sameach and Shabbat Shalom
That photo is the byproduct of my knowledge of greenscreens, Microsoft Paint, and having four clones. But seriously, it was easier than I thought it would be. I started with the idea of what I wanted, and then shot the individual shots. The two keys were (1) keeping the camera at the same location (autoshoot on a table and pile of books; and (2) shooting in front of a wall of uniform color. That helps too. And then, after putting the shots from my digital camera to a computer with Paint, it was just Copy and Paste.
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