The Palm Branch Jews Wave on Sukkot Is Actually a Sword

Every Sukkot morning for seven days, Jews hold a palm branch, two willow sprigs, three myrtle branches, and an etrog (citron fruit) — the arba minim, the four species — and wave them in six directions: east, south, west, north, up, and down. To the uninitiated, it looks like a peculiar botanical exercise. To the Midrash, it is a war gesture. The rabbis of the Talmudic period described the four species as the weapons carried by a victorious army returning from battle — and the act of waving them as a declaration of triumph over the forces that tried to undo Israel during the High Holiday season.

Why Is the Lulav Compared to a Sword?

The comparison appears explicitly in the Talmud Yerushalmi (Palestinian Talmud, tractate Sukkah 3:4, compiled c. 400 CE) and is elaborated in Midrash Rabbah on Leviticus (Vayikra Rabbah 30:2, compiled c. 400-500 CE). The midrash uses a courtroom metaphor: two litigants stand before a judge. One walks out of the courtroom waving a sword. Everyone knows he has won. The sword in this case is the lulav — the palm branch whose spine is straight and hard, tapering to a point. After the Ten Days of Awe between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, the nation has stood before the heavenly court. Sukkot immediately follows the verdict. The lulav-waving is Israel walking out of court, sword raised — announcing to the watching world that the judgment went in their favor.

What Do the Four Species Represent?

The most famous interpretation of the four species comes from Vayikra Rabbah 30:12 (c. 400-500 CE): each plant represents a different type of person. The etrog (citron) has both taste and fragrance — representing those who have both Torah knowledge and good deeds. The date palm (lulav) has taste but no fragrance — those with knowledge but not deeds. The myrtle has fragrance but no taste — those with deeds but no knowledge. The willow has neither taste nor fragrance — those with neither. And God says: do not separate them. Bind them all together, and they will atone for each other. The binding of the four species into a single ritual object is a political theology — no member of the community is disposable, not even the one who appears to bring nothing.

Why Wave in Six Directions?

The Zohar (Parashat Emor, 3:187a, c. 1280 CE) gives the definitive Kabbalistic explanation of the six-directional waving: the lulav and etrog together form an axis linking all six directions of space — corresponding to the six lower sefirot of Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod. Waving in all six directions and then drawing the species back toward the heart is a gesture of drawing divine blessing from every quadrant of existence back into the center of the self. The Talmud in Sukkah (37b) gives a more practical explanation: waving toward all six directions demonstrates that God's presence fills all space, with no direction privileged — a refutation of any theology that locates the divine in only one direction or one place. The Kabbalah collection at jewishmythology.com contains over forty texts exploring this spatial theology of divine omnipresence.

What Is the Aravah and Why Is It Beaten?

On Hoshana Rabbah — the seventh and final day of Sukkot, which carries its own dramatic weight as the day the judgment from Yom Kippur is finally sealed — something unusual happens with the willows (aravot). They are beaten against the ground five times until their leaves fall off. This custom is not in the Torah and not in the Talmud. It originates in the practice of the prophets in the Second Temple period (c. 500 BCE-70 CE), recorded in the Talmud in tractate Sukkah (44a-b, compiled c. 500 CE), and its meaning has been debated ever since. The predominant explanation in Midrash Aggadah traditions: the willow, which has no taste and no fragrance, represents those human beings who have neither knowledge nor deeds. Beating the willow is the ritual acknowledgment that even the most spiritually empty person deserves inclusion — and the falling leaves symbolize the shedding of sins for those who have nothing else to offer.

What Happens to the Four Species After Sukkot?

The four species are consecrated for the holiday and may not simply be discarded when it ends. Minhag (custom) across various communities prescribes different endings: some burn the lulav, along with the remaining chametz before Passover the following spring — creating a beautiful ritual link between the autumn and spring holidays. Some use the etrog after Sukkot as a flavoring for jam or as a decoration at the Purim feast five months later. The Talmud in Sukkah (45a) records that Rabbi Eliezer bar Tzadok would use the water from the Sukkot libation for washing his hands before prayer — the sanctified water of one holy act flowing into the next. Nothing sacred is simply thrown away. Discover more of the seasonal ritual traditions across our full collection at jewishmythology.com.