How the Sages Identified Each of the Four Species

"On the first day" (Leviticus 23:40): by day and not by night. "On the first day": even on the Sabbath. "On the first day": one overrides the Sabbath only on the first festival day of the festival alone. "The fruit of a goodly tree" (Leviticus ibid.): a fruit whose tree and whose fruit have the same taste -- this is the citron. Ben Azzai says: "goodly" (hadar) means the one that abides (ha-dar) on its tree from year to year. Aquila rendered "hadar" as hydor, for it grows beside the water. "Branches of palm trees" (ibid.): Rabbi Tarfon says, "branches" (kappot) [implies binding] -- and if it is split apart, one binds it together. "And boughs of a leafy tree" (ibid.): the one whose branch is woven like plaiting -- this is the myrtle. "And willows of the brook" (ibid.): I have only those of the brook; from where do I learn those of the valley and those of the mountains? Scripture teaches "and willows of the brook." Abba Saul says: "and willows" means two -- a willow for the lulav and a willow for the Temple. Rabbi Ishmael says: "the fruit of a goodly tree, branches of a palm tree" -- one; "and boughs of a leafy tree" -- three; "and willows of the brook" -- two boughs, one of them not cropped at the top. Rabbi Tarfon says: even three that are cropped.