Lulavim

With the financial markets unsteady, people are wondering whether to invest in gold which has risen steadily, only to drop yesterday. My advice? Invest in lulavim.

On Tuesday, ElderofZiyon.blogspot posted an article titled Egypt bans selling "lulavim" to Israel.

In 2010 INN reported the following.
Giving Jews plenty of time to prepare for the Sukkot holiday, three and a half months away, Egypt has announced that it will not export lulavs this year.
Egyptian Agriculture Minister says he will ban the export of lulavs – palm tree fronds – this year, leaving Jewish communities around the world and particularly in Israel without its major source of lulavim for the Sukkot holiday.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/138105

After reading the above articles, I discovered through Google that this year was not the only one where a threat of a shortage of lulavim was imminent. The following is an excerpt from Lessons of the Lulav: Zaide Reuven and the Lulav Shortage of 5766.

...and we hear that the Egyptians have decided to ban the export of lulavim. After thousands of years of growing date palms, (and probably thousands of years of cutting lulavim) someone has just realised that cutting the lulav damages the tree.
So what now? My partner reminds me to trust in the Almighty who will see to it that His people will not be without the materials to perform the mitzvah of the Four Species. I opine that perhaps this is a wakeup call to Am Yisroel on the subject of unity. After all, the mitzvah of the Four Species is about unity – recall the Midrash that relates each of the Four Species to a particular segment of the Jewish People. Those with taste and smell (they know and perform mitvot – esrog), taste but no smell (they know but don’t perform – lulav), smell but no taste (they perform but do not know – hadas), and neither taste nor smell (no knowledge or performance – aravos). In taking all Four Species together we unite the Jewish People in the service of God.
In jeopardy this year are the lulav Jews. Those who know their responsibilities, but fail to keep them. But they stood to jeopardize all of us. Our unity. Was this a wake up call that had something to do with the some focus of infighting? Perhaps the Disengagement/Expulsion from Gush Katif? Am Yisrael was certainly disunited over that one. Were we being given a message that went something like this: “So you want to perform a mitzvah that has to do with unity?, You must show Me some unity first.”?
Read full article: http://www.esrogfarm.com/2008/09/lessons-of-the-lulav-zaide-reuven-and-the-lulav-shortage-of-5766/