What is the deep connection between Sukkot and the Garden of Eden, and do the four species hint at things that happened at the beginning of human history?
Yes. And there is an amazing connection here, but we need to be precise: I did not find an ancient source that says each of the four species corresponds to a particular event in the Garden of Eden. The most direct and strongest connection runs through the etrog. And from there the Ramban himself takes us to the idea of repairing the sin through the commandment of the four species.
Does the etrog of Sukkot already appear in the story of the Garden of Eden?
Bereshit Rabbah brings several opinions about what the Tree of Knowledge was. One of them is the opinion of Rabbi Abba of Acco:
“Rabbi Abba of Acco said: it was an etrog… Which tree is it whose wood is eaten like its fruit? You find none but the etrog.”
Bereshit Rabbah 15:7.
It is important to emphasize: this is one opinion in the midrash, and not a single ruling of the Sages. Other opinions appear in the same source as well.
But now the Ramban comes and turns this into something much deeper.
In his commentary on the commandment of the four species, in the way of Kabbalah, he writes about “the fruit of a goodly tree”:
“It is the fruit in which there is the greatest desire, and with it Adam, the first man, sinned”
And afterwards:
“And behold, the sin was with it alone, and we will appease before Him with the other species”
Ramban, Leviticus 23:40.
Notice what the Ramban is doing here.
The fruit identified with humanity’s first sin returns to the person not so that they will sin with it, but so that they will stand with it before the Holy One in a commandment.
It is almost a closing of the circle of human history.
And here there is an even more amazing detail
In the story of the sin it is said of Eve:
“And she took of its fruit and ate”
Genesis 3:6.
And on Sukkot the Torah says:
“And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of a goodly tree”
Leviticus 23:40.
From here I move to homily and interpretation, and not to a quotation from a source:
In the Garden of Eden man took a fruit because he wanted it, against the command.
On Sukkot a person takes a fruit because the Holy One commanded it.
Almost the same outward action.
Taking.
A fruit.
A human hand.
But the meaning has been completely reversed.
In the Garden of Eden the taking symbolized: I decide what is good for me.
On Sukkot the taking can symbolize: I bring my will into the will of God.
If one reads the Ramban this way, the etrog is not only a memory of the Garden of Eden.
It can become a repair of the Garden of Eden.
And the etrog carries another strange “fingerprint” of the beginning of creation
The Talmud asks how we know that “the fruit of a goodly tree” is the etrog, and says:
“A tree whose wood and fruit taste the same - that is the etrog.”
Sukkah 35a.
Now go back to the third day of creation.
On the phrase “fruit tree” in Genesis 1:11, Rashi explains:
“That the taste of the tree should be like the taste of the fruit”
Rashi, Genesis 1:11.
This is a fascinating connection.
According to Rashi’s explanation, in the original plan of creation there was a state in which the tree itself was meant to taste like the fruit.
And which species is described in the Talmud as one in which the taste of the tree and the fruit is the same?
The etrog (the Talmud there also discusses pepper).
From here on this is again interpretation, not an explicit statement of the Talmud:
One can see in the etrog a kind of remnant of the world as it was meant to be from the beginning.
In other words, the etrog holds within it two almost opposite associations:
On the one hand - according to Rabbi Abba of Acco and the Ramban, it is tied to the sin of the Tree of Knowledge.
On the other hand - its quality recalls the original ideal of creation.
It is both a memory of the fall and a hint of what was before the fall.
And it is interesting that Rabbi Abba of Acco identifies the Tree of Knowledge as the etrog precisely because of this quality: “a tree whose wood is eaten like its fruit”.
And that is already amazing.
And what about the water?
Here too there is an intriguing connection.
Of the Garden of Eden it is said:
“And a river went out of Eden to water the garden”
Genesis 2:10.
And the Mishnah says of Sukkot:
“And on the festival they are judged concerning water”
Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 1:2.
And within the four species themselves the willow appears as “willows of the brook”, in Leviticus 23:40.
And the Ramban himself, in the same commentary, brings in the name of the Sages that the four species “come to appease concerning the water” (Taanit 2b).
I am not saying that the Mishnah teaches that Sukkot is a re-enactment of the Garden of Eden. It does not say that.
But as a homily, it is hard to ignore the picture:
A garden.
Trees.
Fruit.
Water.
A person in the presence of the Holy One.
And then on Sukkot there appear again plants, fruit, water, joy before God, and a going out from the ordinary house into a more natural space.
And then perhaps we understand what really happens on Sukkot
This is the idea I propose:
The story of the Garden of Eden begins in a world of abundance, closeness and harmony.
Man spoils it when he takes for himself something that was forbidden to him.
After the sin come the expulsion, the toil and the curse.
And on Sukkot a person stands with a fruit in hand.
But this time they do not say:
I take because I want.
But rather:
I take because I was commanded.
This time they do not hide from the Holy One among the trees.
This time they take the trees and the fruit and stand with them before the Holy One.
And this is perhaps the strongest way to formulate the connection:
In the Garden of Eden the fruit was the place where human will separated from the will of God. On Sukkot that very fruit, according to the tradition that identifies it with the etrog, becomes the place where human will reconnects with the will of God.
And if so, the four species are not only a celebration of nature.
One can see in them a picture of a person trying to take the physical world itself - tree, fruit, branch, leaves and water - and return it to the Holy One.
And the sentence that, in my eyes, best captures the whole idea is:
In the Garden of Eden man took a fruit and lost the garden. On Sukkot he takes a fruit to begin the way back to it.
This is already the wording of a homily, not a quotation from a source, but it rests on the explicit connection the Ramban makes between the etrog, the sin of Adam and the commandment of the four species.