Before the holy Rebbe Tzvi Hirsch HaKohen of Ziditchov became widely known, he spent time, after the passing of his master Rebbe Menachem Mendel of Rimanov, in the presence of the holy Rebbe Naftali of Ropshitz. Rebbe Naftali showed him no signs of endearment, and in all things, he was the last to be attended to. Once, Rebbe Naftali's son, Rabbi Elazar, mentioned to his father that he should give some wine to Rebbe Tzvi. His father replied: "Know that all his greatness comes from humility, and if I honor him, he will overturn the world. He is greater than I, and the time will come when you will stand at his door."
Many years later, when Rebbe Tzvi Hirsch had become renowned throughout the world, Rabbi Elazar traveled to see him in Rimanov. When he wished to enter, the attendants told him that the Rebbe was sleeping and that he should wait until he awoke. The attendants offered him a chair to sit but he refused. "I wish," he said, "to fulfill my father's words and stand at his door."
Once, on the festival of Sukkot, Rebbe Naftali wept and said: "I am descended from my grandfather, the Gaon (Yitzchak HaLevi) of Hamburg, and I possess a beautiful, top-quality etrog, yet I accomplish nothing. And this Tzvi has an etrog worth two deksir (small coins), and he illuminates all the worlds with his etrog."
It is further told that the holy Rebbe of Ropshitz would take great care to obtain etrogim for his holy sons and close disciples. When Rebbe Tzvi Hirsch was in Ropshitz, the holy Rebbe of Ropshitz purchased an etrog for him as well. One of the close disciples was puzzled by this and asked the holy Rebbe of Ropshitz in a jesting tone: "Does Hirsch the attendant also need an etrog? A potato is surely enough for him!" The custom there was that after Sukkot, the etrogim were returned to the holy Rebbe of Ropshitz, who would then examine them. When Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch returned his etrog, the holy Rebbe of Ropshitz praised it warmly and said to his close disciples: "He has returned an etrog to me, for the mitzvah was performed through it in its full measure. But you have returned potatoes to me."
These stories reflect a particular quality that belongs to the etrog: on the one hand, it symbolizes wholeness—it possesses both taste and fragrance, which represent Torah learning and good deeds together. Likewise, hadar (beauty and perfection) is of special importance in the etrog. On the other hand, it is bound specifically to the quality of humility and lowliness, as is known from the allusion in the Panim Yafot that the letters of etrog (אֶתְרֹג) are the initials of the phrase (Psalms 36:12) “let not a foothold of pride come upon me” (אַל תְּבוֹאֵנִי רֶגֶל גַּאֲוָה). It is for this reason that Rebbe Tzvi Hirsch, whose greatness flows from humility, illuminates all the worlds with a simple etrog while the disciple who measures the worth of those around him by external appearances turns even a top-quality etrog into a potato.
The Seven Days and the Four Species
The seven days and the seven Ushpizin (exalted guests) of Sukkot can be correlated to the Four Species. The three myrtle branches (hadasim), which themselves exhibit a threefold structure of leaves, correspond to the three Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as well as to the first three emotive sefirot: lovingkindness, might, and beauty. The two willow branches (aravot) correspond to Moses and Aaron and to the sefirot of victory and acknowledgment. The date-palm branch (lulav) corresponds to Joseph and to the sefirah of foundation (yesod). The citron (etrog) corresponds to David and to the sefirah of kingdom (malchut).
According to this division, the final day of Sukkot is the day of the etrog. It is specifically on this last day that one should pray to be saved from pride, and one makes a special supplication toward that end. On this day a second nature is instilled within us, the nature of “one who is always wary” (אָדָם מְפַחֵד תָּמִיד), whose initials spell “truth” (אֱמֶת)—wary of “a foothold of pride” encroaching upon him.
Why is it on the final day in particular that there is reason to pray to be saved from pride? Our master the Ba’al Shem Tov explained that when God cursed the snake in the Garden of Eden, He said to him regarding his relationship with man: “He [man] will crush your head and you will crush his heel." The meaning behind this symbolism is that when it comes to rise up to do a good deed—the head—man will usually prevail over the serpent and will crush him. This is a tactic exercised by the serpent, i.e., the evil inclination, because it quietly waits until the good deed has been completed. This is the heel of the good deed, which the serpent then strikes with the poison of pride. Thus, the most dangerous moment of every good deed is its conclusion and completion. It is then that we are prone to be infected with a sense of pride at having performed the good deed. This is why the seventh day is the day of the etrog; it is the time when we must pray and guard ourselves from the serpent’s bite.
The Emek HaMelech records an allusion. When a person overcomes his evil inclination and prevents pride, the image is of his heel above the serpent’s head. This can be represented by placing the initial letter of heel (עָקֵב), ayin, before the initial letter of head (רֹאשׁ), reish. The word constructed is עֵר, whose meaning is “awake.” But when a person succumbs to his evil inclination and feels prideful, the image of the serpent’s head above the individual’s heel. The resulting word constructed is רָע, meaning “evil.” In Scripture, there is a man named Er, spelled and pronounced exactly like “awake” (ער). This was Er, Judah’s son who was destined to be the progenitor of the Mashiach (מָשִׁיחַ), which in Hebrew has the same value as “serpent” (נָחָשׁ). But his evil inclination got the better of him—the serpent prevailed over him and inverted the letters of his name, so that the Torah writes that, “Er, Judah’s firstborn, was evil in the eyes of God" (Genesis 38:7). From being a candidate for Mashiach, he succumbed and became “evil,” as above. The ushpiz (guest) of the seventh day of Sukkot is David, who constantly struggled to be lowly in his own eyes (2 Samuel 6:22) and not succumb to pride. He is therefore identified here with the etrog. His lowliness is the source of his great joy when dancing before the Ark of the Covenant. Sukkot is known as “the season of our joy,” and the joy reaches its apex on the eighth (and ninth) days of Sukkot, fueled by the lowliness and rejection of pride on the seventh.
According to the Ba’al Shem Tov's explanation, the evil serpent is the serpent of pride, which attempts to plant within a person the feeling that he is a tzaddik, a sense of pride over his good deed. This connects with the teaching of the holy Ari that when one performs a transgression of any of the commandments, the damage affects the lower spiritual unification that adds new energy into reality and is symbolized by the letters vav and hei of God’s essential Name, Havayah, the Tetragrammaton. The first two letters, yud and hei in Havayah, which symbolize the higher unification that sustains reality, are not affected by our transgressions. However, pride is an exception. The value of “pride” (גַּאֲוָה) in Hebrew is 15, the same as the value of yud and hei, the first two letters of God’s essential Name, Havayah. Thus, pride alone has the power to damage the higher unification between the yud and hei of the Name. In fact, the value of “foothold of pride” (רֶגֶל גַּאֲוָה) is 248, alluding to the fact that pride has the power to damage every one of the 248 positive commandments!
If at the conclusion of every good deed the serpent attempts to strike and we must pray "let not the foothold of pride come upon me," how much more so at the close of “the great fair,” i.e., this world we live in is likened to a festive gathering, a fair. The close of the great fair is a euphemism for the day of one’s departure from the world. It is indeed worthy of note that according to the traditions in our possession, both the holy Ari and the Baal Shem Tov, on their final day in this world, with their very last words, sought precisely what is asked for in this verse: to be saved from pride. A beautiful allusion to this is that the values of Isaac (יִצְחָק), the Ari’s first name and Israel (יִשְׂרָאֵל), the Ba’al Shem Tov’s first name together is the same as this phrase, “let not a foothold of pride come upon me” (אַל תְּבוֹאֵנִי רֶגֶל גַּאֲוָה), with the kollel.
