The four species of vegetable productions to be used during prayer (Lev. xxiii, 39, 40) are the next distinc- tive feature of this festival, to which the ancient doctors of the law before the time of Christ devoted much at- tention. These are — 1. '' The fruits of the goodly tree" ("lin yS "^"12). As the phrase goodly or splendid tree ("iin yV) is too indefinite, and the fruit of such a tree may simply denote the fruit of any choice fruit-tree, thus leaving it very vague, the Hebrew canons, based upon one of the significations of "^TH (to dwell, to rest ; see Rashi on Lev. xxiii.. 40), decreed that it means the fruits which permanently rest upon the tree — i. e. the cit- ron, the paradise-apple (ni'irX, ethrdg). Hence the rendering of Onkelos, the so-called Jerusalem Targum, and the Syriac version of "Tlil by ethrdg ( = ic(Vpioj', Josephus, Ant. xiii, 13, 5), citron. Josephus elsewhere (ibid, iii, 10, 4) says that it was the fruit of the persea, a tree said by Pliny to have been conveyed from Persia to Egypt (Hist. Nat. xv, 13), and which some have identified with the peach (Mains persica). 'Ih^ ethrdg must not be from an uncircumcised tree (Lev. xix, 23), nor from the unclean heave-offering (comp. Numb, xviii, 11, 12); it must not have a stain on the crown, nor be without the crown, peeled of its rind, perforated, or de- fective, else it is illegal (Mishna, Svl-hih, iii, 5, 6). 2. "Branches of palm-trees" (C^'Cri rSS). According to the Hebrew canons, it is the shoot of the palm-tree when budding, before the leaves are spread abroad, and while it is yet like a rod, and this is called luldb (-?'?), which is the technical expression given in the Chaldce versions and in the Jewish writings for the Biblical phrase in question (Buxtorf, Af a". Ta/m. col. 1143; C&T\m>v,App. Crit. p.41G ; Drusius, Not. Maj. in Lev. xxiii). The luldb must at least be three hands tall, and must be tied togeth- er with its own kind (Mishna, Sukkah, iii, 1 , 8 ; Maimoni- des, lad Ha-Chezaka, Hilchoth Lulab, vii, 1). 3. " The bough of a thick ti-ee" (rSS VV ?3;'). This ami)iguous phrase is interpreted by the ancient canons to denote "the myrtle-branch (DTH) whose leaves thickly cover the wood thereof: it must have three or more shoots around the stem on the same level of the stem, but if it has two shoots opposite each other on the same level, and the third shoot is above them, it is not thick, but is called (riwia m23) a thin myrtle" (Mishna, Sukkah, Zi b; Maimonides, ibid, vii, 2). This explanation accounts for the rendering of the Chaldee paraphrases of this phrase by hadds (Of 'T'X myrtle-branch. If the point of this myrtle-branch is broken off, or if its leaves are torn off, or if it has more berries on it than leaves, it is illegal (Mishna, Sukkah, iii, 2). 4. " The tvillows of the brook" (bri3 '^'Z1V=salix helix) must be of that species the distinguishing marks of which are dark wood, and long leaves with smooth margin. If any one of these four kinds has been obtained by theft, or comes from a grove devoted to idolatrv, or from a town which has been enticed to idolatry (comp. Deut. xiii. 12, etc.), it is illegal (ibid, ill, l-b). Their legality having been ascertained, the palm, the myrtle, and the willow are bound up together into ()ne bundle, denominated luldb.
It has already been remarked that the Sadducees in and before "the time of Christ maintained that the boughs and fruit here mentioned (viz. Lev. xxiii, 40) are to be used fur the construction and adornment of
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the booths, and that they appeal to Neh. viii, 15, 16 in support of this view. Tliis view has not only been es- poused by the Karaite Jews, the successors of the Sad- ducees [see SAi)i)ucEKj,but is defended by bisliop Pat- rick, Keil, and most modern Christian interpreters. Against this, however, is to be urged that — (I.) The ob- vious sense of the injiniction (Lev. xxiii, 40) is that these boughs are to be carried as symbols during the rejoicing, and that we should expect something more explicit than the single and simple word Dririi^il, and ye shall take, had it been designed that these boughs should be employed for the construction of the booths. (2.) 'Vhe/'iult CIS) — as the margin of the A. V. rightly has it, and not boughs, as it is in the text with which this injunction commences — could surely not be among tlie materials for the construction of the booths. (3.) The law about the bootlis is entirely separated from tlie ordering of the fruit and boughs, as may be seen from a comparison of Lev. xxiii, 40 with ver. 42. (4.) The first day of this festival, as we have seen, was a holy convo- cation, on which all manner of work was interdicted. It is therefore against the sanctity of the day to sup- pose that the command to take the fruit and the boughs on the first day meant that the Israelites are to con- struct with these plants the booths on this holy day. (5.) The appeal to Neh. viii is beside the mark, inasmuch as different materials are there mentioned — e. g. olive- branches and pine-branches — which were actually used for making the bootlis, while the haddr fruit and the willow speciried in the Pentateiichal injunction are omitted. With the regulations about the tabernacles and the boughs or liddb before us, we can now continue the description of the mode in which this festival was celebrated in the Temple.