MEDITATION AND BLESSING ON TAKING THE LULAV Meditations before fulfilling commandments are a way of focusing our attention on the specific religious character of the act we are about to perform. They are a conscious declaration of kavana, sacred intent. This meditation first appeared in Rabbi Nathan Hannover’s Sha’arei Zion, published in Prague, 1662. The lulav, etrog, myrtle and willow leaves bear witness to the power of rain to give life to the earth and its produce. We offer them to God in the hope that He will continue to send rain in the coming year. The meditation speaks of the commandment in spiritual terms: just as we, on earth, dedicate this act to heaven, so may heaven grant a downward flow of God’s blessings to earth.