I’m guessing that many of you are familiar with Ghandi’s exhortation to “be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
I don’t know if Ghandi was a Talmudic scholar, but it does not come as a surprise to me that a similar teaching is in our Jewish texts. Pirke Avot* (2:5) reads: “In a place where there are no men, strive to be a man.”
1) We shake the lulav and etrog in all directions when we enter the sukkah. As a Hebrew school student, I learned that this is because God is in all directions, and God’s blessings are everywhere. We can feel God’s blessing in every area of our lives. This is true, and a great lesson. But I like to think that another reason we shake the four species in every direction is to remind us that each of *us* can radiate blessing and goodness in every area of our lives. We don’t have to wait for God to give it to us. We can give it to the world.