Taking the self toward Hashem

בשם אמו"ז ז"ל ולקחתם לכם.

In the name of my grandfather and teacher, of blessed memory, on the verse "And you shall take for yourselves" (Vayikra 23:40).

The Sefas Emes opens by citing his grandfather's teaching on the mitzvah of taking the arba minim (four species) on Sukkos, reading "for yourselves" as a hint to what a person takes upon himself inwardly.

ליקח עצמותינו אל הבורא ית'.

To take our very selves and direct them to the Creator, may He be blessed.

"Take for yourselves" means: take your own essence and turn it toward Hashem — the real object of the taking is a person's own self, given over to his Creator.

והיינו כדאיתא במדרשים אתרוג דומה ללב לולב לשדרה הדס לעינים ערבה לשפתים.

And this is as the Midrashim state: the esrog resembles the heart, the lulav the spine, the hadas the eyes, and the aravah the lips.

Chazal teach that each of the four species corresponds to a part of the body, so that holding them together represents drawing the whole body into the mitzvah.

וצריך האדם לכוין להטות כל איברים הללו אליו ית' והמצוה שמרמז לזה מסייע ג"כ לאדם כי כל מצוה היא הבטחה ג"כ שמתקיים לבסוף ע"י שמרמזים שחפצים בזה:

A person must have in mind to incline all of these limbs toward Him, may He be blessed; and the mitzvah, which alludes to this, itself helps the person — for every mitzvah is also a promise that in the end it will be fulfilled, by means of our hinting through the act that we desire this.

One should intend, while taking the species, to turn heart, spine, eyes and lips toward Hashem. The mitzvah is not only a demand but a guarantee: by performing the act that signals our longing, we draw down the siyata diShmaya that this longing will ultimately be realized in us.

Summary: The mitzvah of the four species is a way of taking one's entire self — heart, spine, eyes and lips — and inclining it toward Hashem; and the very act of expressing this desire is itself a promise that Hashem will help bring it to fulfillment.