Sukkot is a weeklong Jewish holiday that comes five days after Yom Kippur. Sukkot celebrates the gathering of the harvest and commemorates the miraculous protection G‑d provided for the children of Israel when they left Egypt. We celebrate Sukkot by dwelling in a foliage-covered booth (known as a sukkah) and by taking the “Four Kinds” (arba minim), four special species of vegetation.
On every day of the holiday of Sukkot (with the exception of Shabbat), there’s a mitzvah to take the “Four Kinds”—a lulav (date palm frond), an etrog (citron), at least three hadassim (myrtle branches) and two aravot (willow branches). In the words of the verse (Leviticus 23:40), “You shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of the hadar tree [citron], date palm fronds, a branch of a braided tree, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the L‑rd your G‑d for a seven day period.”
