Parashat Truma - Zachor
8 Adar 5761
March 3, 2001
Daf Yomi: Gittin 24


Guest Rabbi:
Rabbi Marc Penner
Young Israel of Holliswood, NY

Shabbat Zachor is a funny time to talk about lulavim and etrogim. However, the Talmud (Sukka 45b) learns a very important detail of hilchot daled minim (four species used in the mitzva of lulav and etrog) from this week's parsha of Truma. The Chumash tells us that the walls of the Mishkan were made from atzei shittim omdim. "upright [beams of] acacia wood." Chazal learn from this phrase that the beams needed to be erected "kederech gedilatam" in same way in which they grew. They must be standing up and down and in the same direction in which they grew from the ground. In fact, all mitzvot, says the Gemara, are to be done "kederech gedilatam," including the mitzva of daled minim. The lulav and etrog must be held in the same way in which they grew.

Tosafot in Masechet Sukka use this fact to resolve a famous difficulty with the bracha on the lulav. Birchot HaMitzva are to be said before fulfilling a mitzva, but in very close proximity to that fulfillment. Usually that is accomplished by holding the object of the mitzva before using it to perform the mitzva. By lulav, however, merely holding the daled minim is the fulfillment of the mitzva! How then can the bracha be said at an appropriate time? One of the suggestions of the Tosafists is to hold the daled minim at the time of the bracha, but to hold the etrog upside down. Only after the bracha is said is the etrog held in its proper position and the mitzva accomplished.

(Many wonder why the correct way to hold the etrog is with the pitom up. After all, doesn't the pitom hang down on the etrog tree?! It would seem that we are all holding our etrogim upside down. The truth is that as the etrog fruit begins to emerge from the flowers of the etrog tree, it is in fact facing upwards. Only later, when the fruit gets heavier, does the etrog droop down on the tree with its pitom down.)

Rabbi Ben Zion Firer (Panim Chadashot BaTorah) suggests an interesting rationale for this halacha of "kederech gedilatam". He explains that this halacha reinforces a central concept of the Mishkan: That a Jew can and therefore must do tshuva for his sins.

He explains as follows. The Midrash (on Parshat VaYeira) struggles to understand how Hagar could have chosen an Egyptian wife for her son Yishmael. After all, hadn't she learned anything in the house of Avraham? Egypt was the capital of immorality! Why would she specifically look there to find a girl? Rav Ami in the Midrash answers with a maxim: "Throw a stick into the air and it will land on its base." The Etz Yosef explains Rav Ami as saying that a stick will land "kederech gedilato" for everything eventually returns to its source. So too Hagar, though she had spent so many years with Avraham and Sarah, she reverted to her past as an Egyptian to find a wife for her son. She returned to her impure source - kederech gedilata - at this critical moment for her family.

Every day we say "neshama shenatata bi tehora hi." We were born with a pure neshama. That is our source. And the message of kederech gedilatam is that everything can and will return to its source. It may take years. The person might look very different. But ultimately a Jew can return to his source.

At the heart of the Mishkan and its korbanot lies the concept of tshuva. The Ramban explains that a korban is a vicarious death experience where I see what should have been the punishment for my behavior. The Rambam tells us in the beginning of Hilchot Tshuva, the korbanot only serve to atone for the sinner if he has done tshuva. How appropriate, then, that the very walls of the Mishkan remind the sinner that tshuva is possible! Everything and everyone can stand "kederech gedilatam."

This idea of tshuva also lies at the heart of the daled minim. Rabbeinu Bachya explains that the daled minim represent different types of Jews with different levels of knowledge and observance. When the arava - which has neither scent nor taste - is taken with the other three minim it represents the rasha's ability to do tshuva. Additionally, the four species, taken as a sign of our victory in judgment on Yom Kippur, stand as a testament to our ability to change and turn back the clock of our lives. Perhaps this is why these species must also be taken kederech gedilatam.

Shabbat Shalom.