27 Sep SHAKE YOURSELF

A renowned Rabbi
once did a favor for the
Gerrer Rebbe, the Lev
Simcha, which the
Rebbe remembered for
many years. Each year,
on Erev Rosh Hashana,
the Rebbe would call the man to check in on
him and to wish him a kesiva v’chasima tova.
One year, the Rabbi asked the Rebbe if he
could have the honor of visiting on Chol
HaMoed Sukkos. The Rebbe was more than
happy to agree and they set up a time. Chol
HaMoed came and the Rabbi was welcomed
into the Rebbe’s sukka where they began a
joyous discussion of Divrei Torah about
Sukkos.
The Rebbe, in his classic style, pointed out
something amazing about the way we
perform the mitzvah of מינים ד׳. He said,
“Did you notice that the number of times we
shake the Arba Minim equals the gematria of
the two sheimos, the two names of Hashem?”
The Rabbi, who was a very quick thinker,
remarked, “Rebbe, I’m sorry but I don’t think
the math works out. We shake five times all
together. Once when we make the ברכה,
twice when we say הודו, and twice when we
say אנא. Each time there are 18 total waves
or shakes, 3 in each of the 6 directions. That

makes the sum total 90, whereas the gematria
of the two names of Hashem is 91.” [The
four-letter name of Hashem is written with
letters that add up to 26 and pronounced with
letters that add up to 65.]
The Lev Simcha smiled. “True, but you
forgot to include one more shake, perhaps the
most important one.” The Rabbi was
confused, which of the נענועים did he leave
out? The Rebbe explained, “A yid must also
give himself a shake, we shake the lulav and
we shake up our lives.”
We are familiar with many of the laws of
לולב and אתרוג but these laws also have a
deeper meaning, a פנימיות to them. We are
meant to not only take and shake the לולב and
אתרוג externally but to have it impact us
internally as well. The Zohar tells us that the
word לולב comes from a combination of the
world “לו) “to him) and “לב) “heart), meaning
our hearts must be our own, in our personal
jurisdiction, and under our control. Our
hearts should not be swayed by peer pressure
or the temptation to imitate the hearts of
others.
When the Torah commands the mitzvah of
לולב it says, לכם ולקחתם, take for yourself.
Chazal learn from here that we must own our
own לולב the first day that we take it. We must

take personal ownership over our Avodas
Hashem and over our lives, and not serve
Hashem by comparing, competing, or
copying those around us.
This insight can provide deeper
understandings behind some fundamental
Halachos of lulav. A הגזול לולב is disqualified
because we cannot steal or copy others, we
need to find our own voice, fulfill our own
unique mission in this world. A היבש לולב is
pasul, a dried out לולב is invalid, because it
lacks vitality, חיות. It is simply going through
motions bereft of vitality. The לולב of an
אשרה of זרה עבודה is invalid. Our heart
cannot be led astray, can’t be influenced from
foreign sources, ideals and ideas. It must be
genuine, authentic, and true.
The לולב must be shaken גידולו דרך , in the
way that it grew, pointing upwards. Our heart
was born to strive upwards, we are positioned
to grow, to stretch and to actualize our
spiritual potential.
The לולב requires נענועים. When shake in
every direction; when we interact with those
all around us, we cannot simply be an
imitation, a copy of someone else. לו ,לולב
לב, we have to take our unique energy, talents,
skills and apply them in every direction,
spread them all around us.
The Gemara in Sukka (53a) teaches:
תַּנְי ָא: אָמְרּו עָלָיו עַל הִלֵּל הַזָּקֵן כְּשֶׁ הָי ָה שָׂמֵחַ
בְּשִׂמְחַת בֵּית הַּׁשֹואֵבָה, אָמַר כֵּן: אִם אֲנִי כָּאן
— הַכֹּל כָּאן, ו ְאִם אֵינִי כָּאן — מִי כָּאן
They said about Hillel that when he was
rejoicing at the Simchas Beis Ha’Shoeiva
he said this: If I am here, everyone is
here; and if I am not here, who is here?

Could Hillel be so arrogant, so self-
centered to make such a pompous and

bombastic statement about himself? The
Talmud is replete with examples of
Hillel’s paradigmatic humility. What was
Hillel actually saying?
The Kotzker Rebbe famously said: “If I
am I because I am I, and you are you
because you are you, then I am I and you
are you. But if I am I because you are you
and you are you because I am I, then I am
not I and you are not you.”
Knowing who you are requires an
awareness and realistic measure of your
capabilities. Without self-understanding,
you may rely on others to determine your
identity and potential. Am I one person at
work, another person at shul, another at
home, and someone entirely different
when I’m on vacation? If I am only
defined by others or by the context in
which I find myself then I have no true
identity of my own. The Kotzker Rebbe
was teaching that identity is built from
within.
Perhaps Hillel was echoing the message
of the Kotzker: If I am here, the true me,

the real me, the genuine and authentic me, if
each of us are true to ourselves and our
missions, כאן הכל, we are all really here. But
if we are just imitating one another, if we are
just blending together and copying each
other, nobody is actually here. Hillel’s
humility didn’t contradict his self-awareness.
Rav Dessler explains that this is the meaning
of another famous statement by Hillel, יןֵא םִא
יִל יִמ ,יִל יִנֲא If I am not for me, who will be for
me? If I am just a copy, an imitation of
others, who will represent and express the
real me?
According to the Zohar we take the לולב and
we remember לב לו, be yourself, be true to
your heart, don’t lose sight of the unique gifts
Hashem has entrusted you with and the
mission that only you can fulfill. So you
don’t have the same job, spouse, children,
talents, skills or opportunities as others you
know. Your job is not to be them, it is to be
you. To know your heart and be true to it, to
shake your lulav and shake yourself up until
the real you comes out.
Oscar Wilde put it well when he said: “Be
yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
Perhaps this is why Sukkos specifically is
שמחתנו זמן. The biggest source of happiness
is being true to ourselves, feeling genuine and
authentic.
Several years ago, a group was travelling
through Iceland on a tour bus and stopped
near a volcanic canyon in the southern
highlands. Soon, there was word of a missing
passenger. A search and rescue operation was
initiated involving 50 people on foot and in
vehicles. As the night wore on in Iceland’s
Eldgja Canyon, a description of the missing
person was offered – Asian female in dark
clothing and speaks English well. It was close
to 3:00 a.m. and the Coast Guard readied a
helicopter to help find a missing woman. But
the search was called off when it became
clear the missing woman was actually part of
the search party. She had left to change her
clothes. When she came back, her party
didn’t recognize her and started the search. It
turns out that all night the woman was
searching… for herself.
This Sukkos, let’s not only shake the
physical לולב, let’s shake ourselves us and go
searching for our לב לו, who we are and the
unique energy we can wave in every direction.