<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; "><p><font><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Using gematria, Yehuda Aryeh Leib (author of </font><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Sefat Emet</font></i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">, "The Language of Truth)," and Rebbe of Gora Kalwaria in Poland, near Warsaw, often reminded his chassidim that the numerical value of </font><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">lulav</font></i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"> was 68, the same as </font><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">chayim</font></i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">, which means “life.”</font></font></p><p><font><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">It was this strong association with <span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">life</span> that Jewish weddings traditionally had an abundance of </font><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">hadassim</font></i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">-style leaves on the chuppa, and why fathers would give their sons a myrtle plant headgear wreath to wear at their wedding. </font></font></p><p><font><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">But it is the esrog that evokes the greatest emotion and attracts the most intense scrutiny. To quote Ibn Ezra: "There exists no tree-fruit more beautiful than the esrog." </font></font></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">I personally discovered the following: <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span> Esrog (spelled without a vov) equals 604 which equals the gematria of "Etz Chayim and Shalom together." So the play on words of Etz Chayim which offers Shalom equals the numerical value of Esrog. And Esrog (spelled with a vov) equals 610. If you take the esrog (610) and add to its numerical value the additional THREE species (hadasim, aravot, and lulav), you get 613, the total number of mitzvot in the Torah.</span></p><p><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">On Yom Kippur we shake ourselves into the awesomeness of the day. Four days later, we shake the four species in praise of God.</font></p><p><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">ri</font></p></span></body></html>