Hallel: The Dance of The Lulav
The Lulav is my dancing out to God. I am handing to God what I could not possibly express in words. The Lulav is the cup of thanks for salvation that we raise to God We are pushing our words up to God.
Hallel is a result of my understanding that there is a plan and there is a Guide Who has a plan and eventually all will be clear and everything will fit together. If a person is fortunate enough to experience a moment in which many pieces of his life fit together, he should use that experience when singing Hallel. Someone has been taking care of me all along and has brought me to this point. This is why we do not bind all four species together but hold the Etrog against the Lulav. We are reenacting the moment when all will come together. Even when many parts of my life fit together and make sense, but there are still some things that confuse and challenge me, I bring the Etrog together with the Lulav, unbound, as if to say, “I believe that eventually all will fit together. The more conviction I have that it will be so, the more likely it will be sooner rather than later.