Shake a Biblical Bouquet

[…from the archives (with minor updating)]:

The cool blankets act like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest [Isaiah 18:4]

Dur­ing which we share a Bib­li­cal Bouquet:

Our rab­bis tell us this bou­quet is like our people:

Some with many good deeds,
oth­ers with much learning;
Some with neither…
Some with both.

The Four Species Table

Fra­grance

is like good deeds.

Taste

is like learning.

The wil­low’s long leaves have neither.

I should weep to be as the willow.

The myr­tle has leaves the shape of eyes.

May my deeds lead me to focus my sights on learning.

The lulav is straight and tall as my spine.

May my stud­ies give me the courage to act in good faith.

Fla­vor and aro­ma join in the etrog.

May my stud­ies and actions sup­port one another;

I will appre­ci­ate and build on the uni­ty of creation.

Each ele­ment of this bou­quet has a shape that reminds me of a part of my body.

I hold and shake the bou­quet in the six direc­tions (beneath, above, left, behind, right and front) so that in all the ways I move I may focus my feel­ings, actions, under­stand­ings, and words. May they be as one in their intent and purpose.

As I men­tioned else­where, many lapel but­tons are nov­el­ty items, some­times pro­duced com­mer­cial­ly. This one how­ev­er, was pro­duced by an orga­ni­za­tion, the Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion of the Unit­ed Syn­a­gogue of Con­ser­v­a­tive Judaism (look towards the bot­tom of that page). As of this writ­ing, a cou­ple of the kits, of which the but­ton was one part, are still avail­able. Liv­ing as we do in New York City, and not hav­ing the abil­i­ty to build my own sukkah, and take the first steps in prepar­ing the sukkah, I put the but­ton on imme­di­ate­ly after Yom Kip­pur… as my way of focus­ing my efforts on the hol­i­day to come.

Make a Lulav Shake

your lapel buttons

Many peo­ple have lapel but­tons. They may be attached to a favorite hat or jack­et you no longer wear, or poked into a cork-board on your wall. If you have any lay­ing around that you do not feel emo­tion­al­ly attached to, please let me know. I pre­serve these for the Jew­ish peo­ple. At some point they will all go to an appro­pri­ate muse­um. You can see all the but­tons shared to date.