Those who joined us the other day understood that, according to the mekubalim (Kabbalists), the way we do the lulav (palm branch) brings in the chasadim. Now we move to seder keri'at haTorah beSukkot (order of the Torah reading on Sukkot). Actually, let's go slowly. Remember, we had them the other day, didn't we? All right, you'll hear it.
Anyway, it says here that every tree has a mal'ach (angel)—we talked about that the other day—except for the four species. They are actually controlled by Hashem Himself. That's why we take these four species: they do not have a mal'ach that causes them to grow.
Vetzarich lakach daled minim elu kemo she'amarnu, hagimel be'echad ve'etrog (citron) be'echad, three in one hand, and one in the other, ulchaber beit hayadayim ke'echad. Vekodem sheyitol kulam beyado yevarech asher kideshanu bemitzvotav vetzivanu al netilat lulav, veyichaven mah she'amarnu; beyom alef yevarech shehecheyanu, ve'achar kach yena'ana bahem ledaled ruchot ha'olam.
You have to be careful when you take the lulav on any of the days that you don't take it and then make the berachah (blessing), because the mitzvah (commandment) is just to take it. So you might run into a problem: How could you do the mitzvah before you made a berachah? Some people have crafty ideas to get around that problem. You see some people holding the etrog upside down. I'm not so happy about that idea. That's a zilzul (disrespect) to the mitzvah. You know, go hold your tefillin (phylacteries) upside down too. Why would you want to hold your etrog upside down? Some do that; others leave the etrog in the box while they say al netilat lulav and then take it out.
Chacham Baruch, alav hashalom, didn't like any of those tricks. He would have kavanah (intention) not to be yotze (fulfill his obligation). Therefore, he would take it in his hand with the kavanah, “I'm not yotze until I make the berachah.” He felt that was the easiest way to do it. Because sometimes you have a hefsek (interruption): you say al netilat lulav, and then you're scrambling to get the etrog out of the box and can't get it out quickly enough. You want to do techef (immediately) the berachah, you want to do the mitzvah, so you have to prepare it and say, “Hey, I'm ready.” As long as you have a negative kavanah, you cannot be yotze with a negative kavanah. You have a negative kavanah. The only problem with that is mar'it ayin (appearance of impropriety). The am ha'aretz (unlearned person) doesn't know what Chacham Baruch is thinking. So he sees, “Oh, the rabbi picked it up and...” You can't win with any of these options. The best thing is to teach the congregation a couple of days before Sukkot how to behave, and then they'll get around this problem.
What do you do, Rabbi Nathan? What's your option—leave it in the box? Yeah. They don't. Chacham Baruch didn't like it; he said sometimes it's a hefsek. And then you have to make a move. Chacham Ovadia didn't like the move of even putting it in your talit (prayer shawl) and kissing it before lehitatef betzitzit (to wrap oneself in tzitzit). What is kissing? What's kissing have to do with the thing? It's nothing! He says it's a hefsek. I'm just giving you examples. If they're worried that kissing the talit is a hefsek, then fumbling for the etrog... Okay, it's less of a hefsek because it's part of what you're doing; it's netilah (taking), I'm osek benetilah (occupied with taking). When I'm kissing the talit, I'm not osek ba'atifah (occupied with wrapping); I'm osek in a side issue. It's different. But here, still, he held that the quicker the better. Negative kavanah. Once you have a negative kavanah, you can never be yotze on a mitzvah if you're doing it with a negative kavanah, until you're at least stam (neutral), or positive.
Anyway, that's what he said. Anyway, veyichaven mah she'amarnu... shehecheyanu, okay, va'achar kach yena'ana bahem ledaled ruchot ha'olam. Okay, so we do the four corners: S-N-E-W—south, north, east, west. Now again, according to Rabbeinu ha'Ari, as we learned, the na'anu'im (shakings): az, molich umevi (he brings and takes). Now, you're collecting a chesed. When you go like this, you're collecting the chesed; you're picking it up and then you're delivering it. Where do you deliver it? Right over here. That's why we said the delivery system: so you take it, you collect it, deliver it, collect it, deliver it, and you do that 72 times throughout the service.
Ve'achar kach yena'ana bahem ledaled ruchot ha'olam, yasim panav lemizrach, veyena'ana gimel na'anu'im, ve'achar kach yahapoch atzmo limino letzad darom, veya'aseh gimel na'anu'im, ve'achar kach lema'arav, ve'achar kach latzafon, shekol pinot she'atah poneh yiheyeh derech yamin, ve'achar kach lema'lah, ve'achar kach lematah, vehem vav ketzavot, gimel gimel hem yud-chet, lehar'ot shelemi nivra kol ha'olam, shamayim va'aretz, uvdaled ruchot ha'olam, ve'idach kam sar shel shalom.
So here, we'll see if he says otherwise, but he says you're supposed to always turn to your right. “Kol pinotav she'adam poneh, eino poneh ela leyamin.” I'm telling you now a rule. In Judaism, they always want you to turn to your right. If you see that we do something odd here, we end up over here—that's the last position, west—it would be much easier for my next position to be here, the south. It would be much easier to go like this. Instead, you see everybody make a full revolution. Why? They want to go right. They want to go right.
Now, they told me that Chacham Ya'akov Ben Chaim says that during Anna Hashem Hoshiah Na (Please, Hashem, save us), which we're doing twice, when he ends up here, he starts Anna again over here. They asked him why. He said, “Because that's considered one; you're still in one item. When do you have to do leyamin? When it's two different items, but when you're in the middle of a thing...” That's new. That's new. There's no—Nobody ever made a chiluk (distinction). I don't even know if Chacham Baruch made such a chiluk. I never prayed with him on Sukkot, to be honest with you, so I cannot answer what he did, but it sounds like a novel understanding.
Most people do not know how to open up this heichal (ark). The right way to open up the heichal is left to right. You always go to the right, so you open it from the left side. Most people come up there and say, “Ah, that logic says the right!” You don't go right to left. We never go right to left. You go left to right. We're one of the only shuls that follow the proper minhag (custom) when we line up the Sifrei Torah (Torah scrolls) on the teivah (reading table).