Question: We use four types of plants in Sukkot. What are these actions?

Answer: The four types of plants come from the fact that our egoism and in general our desires, even non-egoistic ones, consist of four levels. In Kabbalah, they are simply marked: one, two, three, and four.

If we bind them together, they gather into a state called Malchut. And if this state really consists of all the previous qualities, then they gather inside them the quality of bestowal and love, which binds all our desires and intentions, and we thus become like the upper light.

Four types of plants: willow, myrtle, palm branch, and citrus are the upshots of spiritual roots. Kabbalists did not just decide that this is how it will be, but saw in them a clear connection to spiritual roots that manifest in our world this way.

Willow, a plant that has neither taste nor smell, symbolizes the lack of importance for connection and correct relations between people. For us, there is nothing pleasant about them either in the heart or in the mind.

Myrtle has no taste, but it has smell. Taste is a sensation and smell is what we sense with our mind. We understand that unity, a good attitude toward people, is important, but this is not in our heart. The palm branch (date palm), on the contrary, has taste but no smell. And citrus fruits have both taste and smell.

When you hold all four types of plants together, you seemingly want to attract the upper light around us to them. This is the manifestation of the fact that your desire becomes whole, complete, and directed toward bestowal, and thus the upper light enters you.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 10/7/19

Related Material:
Spiritual Holidays, Part 5
Four Species (Arba’at HaMinim) Of Sukkot
On The Holiday Of Sukkot

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