(Lev. 23:40:) BEAUTIFUL TREE FRUIT, BRANCHES OF PALM TREES, BOUGHS OF DENSE TREES, [AND WILLOWS OF THE BROOK]. What is the nature of these four species?⁹⁵., Lev. 8:17; Lev. R. 30:12. Some of them produce fruit and some of them do not produce fruit. BEAUTIFUL TREE FRUIT, THE BRANCHES OF THE PALM TREES. These are the righteous, [because they have good works]. BOUGHS OF DENSE TREES AND WILLOWS OF THE BROOK. These are the average Israelites. The Holy One said: [Let them bind them together,] so that all of them become a single group, lest there be a defect among my children. If you have done so, {I will credit them with a reward.} [at that time I will be exalted. And so the prophet says (in Amos 9:6): WHO BUILDS HIS UPPER CHAMBERS IN THE HEAVENS. Now when is he exalted? When they become a single group (agudah), as stated (ibid., cont.): AND FOUNDS HIS CELESTIAL VAULT (agudah) UPON EARTH.]

footnotes: ⁹⁵ Tanh