No lulav, no problem

This year, something unusual happens on Sukkot.

The first day of Sukkot, September 26, falls on Shabbat. So when we sit in the sukkah and celebrate the beginning of the holiday, there is one familiar mitzvah we will not perform. We will not take the lulav and etrog.

That can feel strange. The lulav and etrog are among the most recognizable symbols of Sukkot. Even for Jews who are not particularly observant, seeing the four species can bring the holiday to mind immediately.

Yet this year, on the first day of Sukkot, they will stay in their cases until the second day of the holiday.

The reason goes back to an ancient rabbinic decree. The Talmud explains that when Sukkot falls on Shabbat, the Sages prohibited taking the lulav. They worried that someone who did not know how to perform the mitzvah might carry the lulav to someone who could teach them. Carrying an object through a public area violates Shabbat. So the Sages suspended the mitzvah for that day.

But this raises a more interesting question.

In the Temple in Jerusalem, Jews took the lulav on Shabbat during Sukkot. If one purpose of Jewish practice is to remember the Temple, why not take the lulav today as a reminder of what our ancestors did?

The answer touches on something larger than Sukkot. It shows us how Judaism thinks about memory.

Jewish tradition has many practices that keep the Temple present in our lives. At the Passover Seder, we eat korech as a remembrance of Hillel’s practice in the Temple. We place symbolic foods on the Seder plate to remind us of the offerings that were once brought there.

Yet Jewish memory does not always mean recreating the original practice.

Using the Seder as an example again, we remember the festival offering without making it look as though we are actually bringing a sacrifice. The memory remains, but we keep a clear line between the Temple service and Jewish life today.

The same principle applies to the lulav.

The Temple remains part of Jewish memory. We remember Jerusalem in our prayers. We mourn the Temple’s destruction on Tisha B’Av and we carry its memory into our holidays.

Yet the Sages decided that this memory does not override the laws of Shabbat. The possibility that someone might violate a Torah prohibition takes priority.

There is a deeper idea here, too.

Chassidic teachings explain that the spirituality associated with the lulav can be achieved through Shabbat itself. The four species represent different kinds of Jews coming together as one. Shabbat creates its own form of unity and holiness.

So on this first day of Sukkot, we are not simply missing a mitzvah. We are experiencing the holiday through a different combination of practices.

We sit in the sukkah. We celebrate with family and friends. We pray. We remember the Temple. And we leave the lulav untouched.

Then, on Sunday, we pick it up.

Perhaps that small pause gives the lulav new meaning. For one day, we experience Sukkot without one of its most familiar rituals. We are reminded that Jewish tradition does not ask us to recreate the past at every moment.

Sometimes we honor the past by remembering it. And sometimes, we honor it by knowing when not to recreate it.