The Four Mysteries of King Solomon
“ Three things are wondrous to me, and four I do not know.” ~King Solomon
Despite all the wisdom granted to [King] Solomon . . . he was mystified by the Four Kinds.
On Sukkot, the Torah commands us to take the “Four Kinds”—the etrog (citron), lulav (an unopened frond of a date palm), hadas (myrtle twig) and aravah (willow twig).
The Four Kinds, says the Midrash, represent four types of people.
Man’s mission in life consists of two basic challenges, learning and doing; or, as these relate to Jewish life, Torah and mitzvot. The Torah is the vehicle by which we gain knowledge of our Creator and insight into the essence of life; the mitzvot, the divine commandments, are the means by which we build a better and holier world, developing the physical creation into a “dwelling for G‑d.”
These two endeavors define the four personalities represented in the Four Kinds.
Learner/Achiever, Reclusive Scholar, Activist, Bystander
The etrog, which has both a delicious taste and a delightful aroma, represents the perfect individual who both learns and achieves. The lulav, being the branch of the date palm, produces fruit that has a taste but no aroma; this is the prototype of the reclusive scholar who grows in wisdom but shuns the world of action. The fragrant but tasteless myrtle is the activist whose profusion of good deeds consumes all his time and energies. Finally, the tasteless, scentless willow represents the person who neither learns nor does, actualizing neither his intellectual potential nor his capacity to improve the world.
On Sukkot, concludes the Midrash, these “Four Kinds” are “all bound together in one bundle,” each an integral part of the community.
Source: The Four Mysteries of King Solomon By Yanki Tauber