What are the four species?

Leviticus 23:40 commands four plants: a goodly (citrus) tree fruit (etrog/citron), palm branches (lulav), thick-leaved tree branches (myrtle), and willows. They are held together and waved during Sukkot. The rabbis established waving them in six directions to acknowledge God's presence throughout creation.

What happened when Nehemiah's generation rediscovered the four species?

Nehemiah 8:14-17 records the post-exilic community finding the Sukkot commandment during Ezra's Torah reading and immediately gathering branches to make booths and celebrate. Verse 17 notes: "There was very great gladness" and that this Sukkot had not been kept since Joshua's time.

Why are the four species waved in six directions?

The rabbis established waving north, south, east, west, up, and down to declare God's omnipresence. There is no direction in which God is absent. The waving accompanies Psalm 118's prayer for salvation (Hoshanot), connecting the physical gesture to verbal praise.

What do the four species represent?

Multiple interpretations: four different plant environments (desert, orchard, mountain, riverbank) gathered into unity; four types of Torah students; four generations of Israel's history; or simply the diversity of creation gathered for a single act of worship before God. Jeremiah 17:8's righteous person is "like a tree planted by the waters" — potentially an etrog or palm image.

How does Zechariah's prophecy extend the four species commandment?

Zechariah 14:16-19 promises that every surviving nation will come to Jerusalem for Sukkot. The festival of the four species — Israel's harvest celebration — becomes the universal festival of all nations acknowledging God's kingship. The commandment anticipates a world where all creation is presented before God.

Commandment #60 · Positive · Sabbath & Holy Days

Take the Four Species on Sukkot

נְטִילַת אַרְבַּעַת הַמִּינִים

Source: Leviticus 23:40 · Maimonides, Sefer HaMitzvot, Positive #60

Four plants from four different environments — the palm from desert oasis, the citron from orchard, myrtle from hills, willow from riverbank — were gathered together and waved in unity before God. The four species represented the diversity of creation gathered into a single act of worship.

וּלְקַחְתֶּם לָכֶם בַּיּוֹם הָרִאשׁוֹן פְּרִי עֵץ הָדָר כַּפֹּת תְּמָרִים וַעֲנַף עֵץ עָבֹת

"And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees."

Leviticus 23:40 — Open in Torah Reader

Nehemiah's Sukkot: The First Four Species Gathering After Exile

וְהִגְדִּילוּ הַשִּׂמְחָה מְאֹד

"And there was very great gladness."

Nehemiah 8:17

Nehemiah 8:14-17 records the post-exilic rediscovery of the Sukkot commandment after Ezra's Torah reading. The people found the command to dwell in booths and to gather branches. They went out and brought "olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees" — and made booths everywhere.

Verse 17 notes: "And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so: and there was very great gladness." The four species gathering was part of the first fully observed Sukkot in generations.

The Waving: Six Directions of God's Presence

The rabbis established waving the four species in six directions — north, south, east, west, up, and down — while reciting Psalm 118. The waving declares that God's presence fills all directions. The person waving is not pointing toward God's location but acknowledging that there is no direction in which God is absent.

Psalm 118:25-26 — "Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD...Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD" — became the liturgical accompaniment to the waving. The Hoshanot (prayers for salvation) of Sukkot are connected to this waving ceremony.

Zechariah: All Nations Bringing the Four Species

Zechariah 14:16-19 prophesies all nations coming to Jerusalem for Sukkot. The nations participating in Sukkot — implicitly including the four species ceremony — is the eschatological vision of a world in which all creation is gathered before God. The four species that represented creation's diversity in Israel's hands will one day be in the hands of all nations.

Key Figures

The Returned Exiles — The Discoverers

Nehemiah 8's account of the returned exiles rediscovering the four species commandment and keeping it with "very great gladness" is the most historically documented fulfillment of this commandment in the Hebrew Bible.

The Sukkot Worshipper — The One Who Waves All of Creation

The person waving four plants from four environments in six directions before God, while praying for salvation, embodies the commandment's purpose: gathering creation and directing it toward its Maker.

Study Questions

For reflection and group study

The four species represent four different plant environments — desert, orchard, hill, and riverbank. What does gathering plants from diverse environments into a single act of worship say about the Sukkot offering's vision of creation?

See Lev 23:40; Ps 24:1; Zech 14:16

The waving of the four species in six directions declares God's omnipresence. What does a physical gesture — not words but movement — accomplish in expressing a theological claim that verbal declaration cannot?

See Lev 23:40; Ps 118:25–26; 1 Chr 16:11

Nehemiah's generation had never observed the four species ceremony (Neh 8:17). A whole generation had grown up without knowing this commandment. What does the rediscovery and immediate joyful compliance teach about the resilience of covenant practice after exile?

See Neh 8:14–18; 2 Chr 34:19–21

The four species include three that have fragrance or taste (etrog has both, myrtle has fragrance, lulav has taste) and willow (which has neither). The rabbis applied this to types of Israelites. What does including "the willow" — those with neither Torah learning nor good deeds — say about the Sukkot commandment's vision of community?

See Lev 23:40; Ps 92:12–14; 1 Cor 12:21–22

Zechariah 14:16-19 promises the nations will keep Sukkot in the messianic age. What does it mean for a commandment that expressed Israel's agricultural harvest to become the universal festival of all nations?

See Zech 14:16–19; Isa 56:6–7; Rev 7:9

Read this commandment in the original Hebrew.

Open Leviticus 23:40 in Torah Reader

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