פרשת אמור תש"כ - חג הסוכות

And ye shall take you on the first day the fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm-trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook, and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.

פרי עץ הדר THE FRUIT OF THE TREE HADAR — a tree the wood of which (עץ) has the same taste as its fruit (פרי) (Sifra, Emor, Chapter 16 4; Sukkah 35a).

הדר — It is called הדר because it is the tree whose fruit remains (הַדָּר) on the tree from one year to another (several years) — and this is the “Ethrog”.

And ye shall take you on the first day the fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm-trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook, and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.

you shall lift up for yourselves We translate according to the words of the Exegetes — since they do not contradict the plain meaning of Scripture — even though elsewhere we translate “every man shall acquire for himself a lamb, for the family group” [Exodus 12:3]. The Exegetes have also transmitted to us the tradition that the fruit of the hadar tree denotes the citron, and, in truth, there is no tree with fruit more beautiful [Hebrew: hadar]. They also called it “the fruit that resides [Hebrew: haddar] on its tree” as a kind of mnemonic [Sukka 35a], as I have explained above concerning the passage “to other people” [Exodus 21:8] [the reference is to an earlier commentary on Exodus, known as the Perush Haqqaṣar — Translator]. The Sadducees [a derogatory reference to Karaites — Translator] have said that the Sukka must be built from these four species, bringing a proof from Ezra’s book [Nehemiah 8:15]. Didn’t these half-wits notice that no mention is made there of the brook-willow , nor of any kind of fruit? On the contrary, it is only a list of branches from five kinds of trees (the fact that “myrtle branches” are mentioned separately from “thick-tree branches” [Nehemiah 8:15] poses no problem to the traditional interpretation; there are two varieties — one tall and one short — and there the term “myrtle” denotes the short variety).

On the first day shall be a holy convocation; ye shall do no manner of servile work.

מקרא קדש — This means: Hallow it (make it different from other days) by wearing fine clothes, and through appropriate prayer. In the case of other Festivals of which the same words are used, the expression מקרא קדש implies: Hallow them (distinguish them from other days) by your food and drink, by your fine clothes and appropriate prayers (cf. Sifra, Emor, Section 12 4).