SUCCOS פרי עץ הדר

The only mitzvah in Torah where we are told to perform the mitzvah with “הדר” with special beauty, is in the case of taking the esrog on the first day of Succos. The Torah says ולקחתם לכם ביום הראשון פרי עץ הדר and you should take for yourselves on the first day a fruit of the tree “hadar”. The mitzvah is on every Jewish male and is only for the first day.

In the Bais Hamikdosh, one had to perform the mitzvah for the whole week of Succos and nowadays as a remembrance of that, we take the esrog and the lulov, the four Minim, the whole week (except for Shabbos). Much has been written about the significance of taking this particular fruit and why it should be hadar. A thought that has occurred to me which I have not seen mentioned anywhere, is as follows.

On Yom Kippur every year, every practising Jew becomes like a new creation, something like the creation of the world originally.

In the same way as after the original creation of the world, on 6th day, אדם הראשון, Adam, was created, so also the first day of Succos is the 6th day from Yom Kippur.

אדם הראשון was commanded ומעץ הדעת לא תאכל ממנו from the tree of knowledge you should not eat. He unfortunately transgressed this by eating the fruit which Chava gave him.

The Gomora discusses which fruit grew on that tree, and one of the Tannoim states that it was an esrog. Furthermore, the Ramban in Parshas Emor says that we accept this as being the Halacha. Accordingly, I think that we can understand why we are commanded to take this particular fruit on the first day of Succos.

When אדם הראשון ate from the עץ הדעת the whole original creation was spoiled. We take the esrog on the first day of Succos, which is the 15th day of Tishrei and the 6th day after Yom Kippur, a sort of anniversary for אדם הראשון. By virtue of us not eating the פרי עץ הדר on that day but keeping a mitzvah which Hashem commanded us, we, in some way, help to rectify that which was spoiled originally. That is the reason why it must be hadar, the most beautiful of the fruits because obviously, when Hashem created fruits originally in the world, they were all הדר. We are told by חז''ל as well that originally all fruits and the trees on which they grew had the same taste if one ate them, but this changed, except in the case of an esrog. טעם עצו ופריו שוים.

With this idea one can also understand a famous חז''ל on the words ולקחתם לכם ביום הראשון you should take for yourselves on the first day (of Succos). חז''ל comment ראשון לחשבון עונות the first to the reckoning of sins. Normally this is translated as meaning that after Yom Kippur, because people are so busy organising the mitzvos of Succos, there is no time to sin, whereas on the first day of Succos one can already settle down, catch one’s breath and unfortunately perhaps not do the right thing and, therefore Hashem commences counting and looking into matters.

According to the idea I mentioned above, however, it refers back to the time that Odom הראשון and Chava had sinned and means that we, ourselves, by taking the פרי עץ הדר are helping to rectify that first day where there were the original עונות, being the sins of Odom and Chava.

One could also find an allusion to the Gomora that says that הדר means fruit that, דר, dwells on the tree from year to year, because an esrog is unique in being the fruit that once it has grown to normal size does not fall off or rot, it can continue for another two or three years in fact without being spoiled, it just grows bigger.

This again would be relevant to what has been stated above, namely that this all refers back to what happened years ago.

ז'' תשרי תשס''ט