ולקחתם לכם ביום הראשון פרי עץ הדר
Pri eitz hadar, “the fruit of a beautiful tree,” is commonly accepted as referring to the esrog tree. In Sefer Likutim, the Arizal says that the letters of the word esrog: aleph, taf, reish, gimmel form an acronym for the pasuk in Tehillim 36:12, Al tevoeini regel gaavah, “Let not the foot of arrogance come to me.” Horav Yaakov Galinsky, zl, explains this pragmatically. The pasuk in which David Hamelech deplores arrogance and prays that it not affect him in any way, is truly a pasuk fitting for the esrog. This could be termed the “esrog’s prayer,” for the esrog…
