Succos

When the Torah commands us to take the ד' מינים on Sukkos it says ולקחתם לכם ביום הראשון, and you should take for yourself on the first day. Chazal explain why it says to take the four species on the first day when in reality we take them on the fifteenth day. They explain its ראשון לחשבון עוונות the first day of the new accounting for sins for the year.


To clarify the words of Chazal why Sukkos would be the start of the new accounting for sins for the year, ר' לוי יצחק מבארדיטשוב explains as follows. The days from Rosh Hashana through Yom Kippur, the teshuva that one does is normally תשובה מיראה , teshuva out of fear of the outcome of our judgment. However, right after Yom Kippur, when we are all busy with all the Sukkos preparations , building the Sukka, getting the ד' מינים etc., that's considered תשובה מאהבה , teshuva out of love, for the fear is gone & the love of the mitzvos takes over.


We know that when a person does תשובה מיראה, all one’s intentional sins turn to accidental ones, and when one does תשובה מאהבה, one’s sins turn into merits. So Hashem in His infinite mercy wants us all to come back to Him out of love. Therefore, on this yom tov when we are doing everything out of love, He waits to count our sins, so that He will know how many merits we have instead of our sins. That's why it’s called the first day of our accounting of sins for the year; for it’s the first day that Hashem counts all of our sins that He turned into merits & can then give us goodness & blessings for the year.


There's a story told about Reb Avraham, the brother of the Vilna Gaon, who after he got married left Vilna to live in a different town. His brother, the Gaon, sent him a letter to move back because he wanted to learn with him. His brother sent back a letter saying that he couldn't because his wife wouldn't move for the following reason.


In those days it was very hard to get a nice esrog & the ones that you could get were very expensive. One year, there were none to be found until one merchant came to town with only one esrog demanding an exorbitant price. At that time, the town would usually chip in & buy it together so there would be one esrog for the whole town. This time, they decided that they would have to forego the mitzva because they didn't have enough money to buy it. When the wife of Reb Avraham heard this, she was broken hearted & turned to her husband & said "how could it be that we won't have an esrog for sukkos?" Then, she had an idea. She said, “we’re living in a house that we got as a wedding present. We don't really need it so let's sell it & then we could buy the esrog. That's what they did.


When Reb Avraham told his wife about his brothers request to move to Vilna he asked his wife & she said we can't go because every time I walk by that house we sold to fulfill the mitzva of esrog I'm filled with such happiness & I can't give that up.


What's so special about the mitzva of esrog that people are willing to give up so much for it & happily?


Another reason why its called ראשון לחשבון עוונות is because the first sin done by man was the sin of the עץ הדעת & the fruit that he ate was the esrog.

The Ramban write that by us fulfilling the Mitzva of esrog we are atoning for the first sin of man.


Maybe that's why we are so connected to the esrog because by our fulfillment of this mitzva we are rectifying the original sin. Not only that, but we are also turning all our sins into mitzvos erasing all sin. If we are able to eradicate all sin, then perhaps we could bring back the original world without any worry or strife & have only bracha straight from Hashem!