Lulav Holder

Some call them Koyshlach or Koysheekalach, if I'm transliterating it correctly from Wikipedia (קוישיקלך או קויישלך).

These are a familiar sight on the Jewish holiday of Sukkos (Sukkot, "Tabernacles" or "Booths").

There are many different types of ways to hold together the Lulav (לולב, Palm Branch) with the Hadassim and Arovos (הדסים וערבות, myrtle and willow) from the 4 species. The type of holder we're making now is a very common type. I learned how to make them from this video. I made this Instructable to make each step more clear.

The pictures are self-explanatory for the most part. I added in arrows and stuff in places that needed clarification.

At the same time, I tried to make the text as stand-alone as I could but at the end of the day it's really hard to explain with words what needs to be done.

I also included possible mistakes one might make along the way.

The first picture of the introduction is what I made. The second picture is from Wikipedia. It shows the proper species that go into the lulav holder (though the top of the hadassim on the right are supposed to be higher than the top of the arovos on the left).

8 doubled Date Palm leaves (16 single leaves) (any lulav palm branch should have plenty of extra leaves at the bottom)

2 doubled Palm leaves (Optional; for rings)

Scissors

4 or 5 Bobby Pins (Optional, for clipping different stages in place)

Pull off the double leaves from the palm branch [pictures 2 - 3], if you haven't done that already. At the bottom (where the branch was attached to the tree, not the pointy end), the leaves are thicker and longer, which will make the holder bigger.

The leaves are very fresh when you pull them off and they will dry out somewhat over the next few days. This might cause the holder to develop a lot of holes in it as each leaf narrows itself and pulls away from each other. This doesn't affect using it, and actually can look quite pretty. But don't wait too long to weave the leaves, as after a few days they start to become brittle and might break as you try weaving them.

The leaves come off the branch [picture 3] as attached pairs, attached along one side [picture 4]. Find the unattached side [picture 5], grab both leaves and pull apart [6] until they separate completely [7]. You should now have 2 separate single leaves.

After splitting 8 double leaves you should be left with 16 single leaves.

Take one single leaf and hold it horizontally, with the fat end on the right. Place a second leaf vertically, with the fat end up, over the first leaf close to the right end of the first leaf [8], with only a little bit of the second leaf extending above the first leaf [9]. The amount the 1st leaf should extend to the right beyond the 2nd leaf is about 2 or 3 leaf-thicknesses (maybe about an inch or 2, or a few of centimeters). The 2nd leaf should extend above the 1st leaf by the same amount.

(The very end of the fat end of the leaf might be a little softer than the rest of the leaf. If so, you may need to have the leaf-ends stick out more, so that you'll have enough stiff part of the leaf to make the folds. You can also cut off the soft part, if that will make it easier.)

Now, take the right end of the horizontal leaf and fold it over towards the left, over the vertical leaf [10].

Then, take the top part of the vertical leaf and fold it foward down [11].

Now, grab the whole folded-over corner [12], and fold it to the left, once [13], and twice [14]. The vertical leaf should roll over together with the corner.

Now we're going to make a loop around the back, from the bottom. Take the bottom of the vertical leaf (the pointy end) [15] and poke it forward in the air, below the folded corner you just made before, so that the pointy end is facing away from you. Then, not turning it to the right nor left, point it up, behind the folded corner [16]. Then bring it above the corner and then have it point towards you. Now point it down so it is pointing straight down towards the folded corner [17]. I explained this step very meticulously because it is easy to do it wrong, and it is hard to explain in text.In the end of this whole move, you should have a loop going down, forward, up, backward, and down again.

Now, put the pointy end into the slot at the top of the folded corner. Inside the slot, there are a few places you can put the leaf, as you can see in the picture. Make sure to put it on the side closer to you, as the blue arrow indicates [18]. If you put it on the other side, the whole fold with fall apart.

Push the leaf all the way through the fold [19 - 20], pulling the loop closed smaller and smaller [21 - 24] until it is wrapped tight around the knotted corner, pulling it tight from the bottom [25].

(If you have trouble pushing the leaf through, it could be the knot is too tight, so loosen it a bit and then try again.)

Now pull the left side of the horizontal leaf tight, towards the left [26].

You should now have a little folded corner section with a leaf coming out of two adjacent sides, like an "L" [27]. This is 1 starting tie.

Now go through this step 3 more times so that you end up with 4 starting ties.

We're going to attach 4 starting ties together. They will be positioned with the tied part farther from us, and the long, pointy leaves towards us, to the right and left [27].

Place the first tie on a table or flat surface. Then put a second tie to the left of the first. It should be positioned so that the left leaf of the right tie is underneath the right leaf of the left tie [28]. Picture 29 shows the wrong way to do it.

Now put a third tie to the right of the 2 ties on the table. The third tie's left leaf should go under the middle tie's right leaf [30], and then over the left tie's right leaf [31]. Push the third tie all the way in until the knots of all three ties are in a straight line next to each other [32].

Now put the 4th tie to the right of the other three going under [33], over [34], and under [35], the 3 right-leaves of the other ties. Push it in until all 4 ties are in a line [36].

Now, push all the ties together so they are tight together without gaps between them [37].

Now would be a good time to clip the whole thing with a bobby pin or something similar [38 - 39] to hold it together while we work on the next step.

Take the leftmost leaf and loop it over to the right side of the 4 ties, pointing to the left so that it is pointing to the rightmost leaf [40].

Insert the looped leaf under the right side of the rightmost leaf (by inserting it in the left direction), then have it go over the 2nd-to-the-right leaf, then under the 3rd leaf, then over the 4th leaf [41].

Keep pushing it through until a small loop is formed over the 4 starting ties [42].

Now take the (current) leftmost leaf [43] and loop it over to the right side, like the previous leaf, except this leaf will be inserted in the opposite pattern, that is, it goes on top of the first leaf on the right, then under the 2nd leaf, over the 3rd [44], and under the 4th [45].

Pull it so that is forms a second loop close to the first [46].

Now take the (current) leftmost leaf, loop it over to the right, and insert it in the same pattern as the first looped leaf, that is, under - over - under - over [47]. Pull to form 3rd loop [48].

Picture 49 shows a close-up of the insertion pattern. The first and third leaves are marked "a", and they start "under". The second leaf is marked "b" and starts by going "over".

Make a 4th loop [50], this time following the pattern of the 2nd leaf [51].

Pull the 4 leaves on the left tighter and tighter [52] until the starting ties begin to form a circle [53], closing tighter [54] and tighter [55], until a tube is formed [56 - 57]. You may have to tug the individual leaves by themselves to make the tube form evenly. Make sure no starting tie gets pulled into the tube as it is forming.

Now we are going to continue taking leaves from the left side, looping them over to the right side, and inserting them on the right side in the same alternating "a" and "b" pattern we did before.

Start with the left leaf (which is the 5th leaf to be looped since we started) and loop it over, and insert it in the "a" pattern like before (under - over - under - over) [59 - 60].

Now the next left leaf (#6) in the "b" pattern.

And the next 2 leaves, in the "a" and "b" pattern [61].

These four leaves should end up looking just like the 1st 4 leaves, like the a - b - a - b pattern shown in picture 62.

Pull all the leaves tight [63 - 64].

Loop over 2 more leaves ("a" and then "b" pattern), and pull tight [65].

Now, you could take out the first bobby pin and clip it in on the side closer to you, in the middle, at the bottom [66].

You can place another pin in the middle, on the part of the tube that's in the air [67].

We've now finished 1 tube [68].

Congratulations!

(If you want to make the tubes longer you can do so by doing more weaves; just make sure to leave enough leaf-length to close it up at the end. Also, it might be a good idea to weave both tubes with only an even number or only an odd number of weaves, but not both, so that they will intermesh together more naturally.)

Make another tube, going again from step 2 to 7.

You should now have 2 tubes with leaves sticking out of them [69].

Now we're going to connect the 2 tubes together.

(We're going to hold the tubes with the part we started with at the bottom and the part with the leaves sticking out at the top)

Each tube has 4 leaves sticking out on the right side and 4 on the left side.

The tubes, at the end of this Instructable, will be facing each other, with the 4 right leaves of each tube interconnected with the 4 left leaves of the other tube.

Let's first connect what we'll call the "back".

Place one tube on the left, leaning a little bit to the right, and the other tube on the right, leaning a little bit to the left, with the right tube's left leaves over the left tube's right leaves [70]. We will be weaving together the 4 leaves from the right tube's left side with the 4 leaves from the left tube's right side [71] to end up making a tight square of 4 by 4 little squares [77 - 78]. But we're getting a little ahead of ourselves.

Notice how the right tube's leftmost leaf is stick's out of the right tube on the outside, while the left tube's rightmost leaf sticks out from the inside [72]. Since this is so, it follows that in the next weave the right tube's leaf will now be on the inside and the left tube's leaf will be on the outside.

So, take the right leaf and go over the 1st leaf on the left, then under the 2nd leaf on the left, then over the 3rd, then under the 4th [73].

Now, weave the 2nd leaf on the right, by going under - over - under - over (the opposite of what we did with the previous leaf) [74].

3rd leaf on the right, weave into the left by going over - under - over - under, like the first leaf [75].

Now the 4th leaf like the 2nd leaf [76].

You should now have the 4 left leaves of the right tube interwoven with the 4 right leaves of the left tube [77].

Pull the leaves tight so that a tight square (or diamond) is formed [78 - 79].

Clip a bobby pin at the top in the middle [80] to hold your work in place as we move on to the next step.

If this is one of your first few times making this, it might be a good idea to fold away and clip the other leaves that we're not using now [81 - 82], so that you can see what's going on, and not get confused.

You should be left with 4 leaves sticking up to the right, and 4 leaves sticking up to the left, like in picture 82.

On the right side, there are four leaves sticking out. Take the first one (the one closer to you) [83] and bend it over itself to form a 90° angle towards the upper-left direction [84].

The point where it bends should be just above the last leaf that was already pointing to the upper-left (from the right tube). Press the newly formed angle down flat [85 - 86].

Now, weave the bent over leaf into the 3 other leaves (that are pointing to the right), in the pattern of under the 1st leaf, over the 2nd, and under the 3rd [87].

Now take the next leaf on the right [88] and bend it the same way as the first, over itself towards the left-upper direction, at a 90° angle [89].

Weave this leaf into the remaining 2 leaves, by going under and then over [90].

Now we're going to do the left side. There should be 6 leaves pointing to the upper-left direction. (In my picture there seems to be 7, since one of the tucked away leaves escaped from its clip). Take the first leaf from the left side [91] and bend it UNDER itself (different than before), at a 90° angle towards the upper-right [92 - 94]. Picture 95 shows why this leaf goes under (and not over) since this creates a consistent over/under pattern between the leaves around it. I forgot to take a picture of the wrong way to do it, but I think you'll manage.

Now weave the leaf into the 5 remaining leaves by going over - under - over - under - over [96] (this side starts the pattern in the opposite way of how we started when we did the right side).

Now take the next leaf and bend it under itself towards the upper-right [97 - 98] and weave it into the remaining 4 leaves, over - under - over - under [99].

Now would be a good time to clip the work so far with a bobby pin [100].

Now we're going to finish up this side (the "back" flap of the lulav holder).

I'm going to describe this step following a specific order of which leaves to close up. You don't have to follow my order exactly but if this is the first time you are making this, I think it would be worthwhile to follow my order, so you don't get lost.

There are 4 leaves sticking out towards the left, and 4 to the right.

Start with the first leaf (the one closer to you) on the left [101]. If you look at the later picture numbered 167, you'll see how I point out that the leaf we will bend over "grabs" the first horizontal leaf it meets, whereas if we would take the second leaf to bend in this direction it misses the first horizontal leaf [102].

(The whole thing is diagonal but when I say horizontal I mean relative to the direction of the leaf we're moving.)

We're going to be bending over and closing up the 8 leaves that are sticking out. Some will be bent in and some will be bent out. It's important to understand how the leaf "grabs" the leaf beneath it because instead of memorizing which leaves we'll need to bend in which direction, it's much easier to just understand the principle and then you'll automatically know what to do with each leaf.

So, take the 1st left leaf and bend it over [101], and skip the 1st and 2nd horizontal leaves, and tuck it under the 3rd horizontal leaf [103 - 105] 

Pull the leaf all the way through [106] until it is tight. Press down on the bent part so that it is flat [107].

Now cut the leaf where it comes out from under the 3rd horizontal leaf.

I forgot to bring scissors with me to the park, so I'm using a dried pine-needle pair in the picture to demonstrate where to make the cut [108 - 109].

Actually, the leaves I'm using are pretty dry and I was able to just snap the piece off with my hand. Anyway, picture 110 shows what it should look like afterwards.

Picture 111 shows the letters "a" and "b" on the 4 left leaves. The ones marked "a" bend in, while those marked "b" will be bent out, later when we get to them.

So now we'll take the 3rd leaf on the left (marked "a") and bend it over [111], skipping the first 2 horizontal rows, and tuck it under the 3rd row [112 - 113].

Pull tight and cut [114 - 115].

Now we'll move to the right side of the flap. Picture 116 shows the letters "a" and "b" again marking the leaves. This time, we're going to bend in the "b" leaves.

So take the 2nd leaf on the right (marked "b") [116] and bend it over, again skipping 2 rows and tucking under the 3rd row [117]. Pull tight and cut [118].

Now we're going to turn the whole thing over [119 - 123].

Take the first leaf on the left and bend it over, towards you [124]. Skip 2 rows, tuck under 3rd, and cut [125 - 127]

Now with the 2nd leaf on the right, bend over, tuck, and cut (no picture of this).

In the pictures, I didn't cut this or the next few ones until after I tucked in a bunch. It doesn't really matter when you cut them.

Now for the 3rd leaf on the left [128]. (The second one was already bent over when we did the front side, before we flipped it.)

If you were following my directions exactly until this point then you should find that when you bend over this leaf and try to tuck it under the 3rd row you will see there are actually 2 leaves you could tuck it under, one on top of the other. Tuck it under the bottom one [129] and not the top one [130] since the top leaf isn't very strong because nothing's really holding it.

Pull tight [131] and cut.

Now take the last leaf on the right, bend over, tuck [132], and cut

Now flip over the whole thing back to the front [133 - 134]

Take the last remaining leaf on the right [135], bend over, tuck [136 - 137], and cut.

(In the next few pictures I cut all the leaves I hadn't cut yet)

Open up the clips that were holding the rest of the leaves that were tucked away [142 - 143].

We're going to do the same thing with these leaves as we did with the ones from steps 9 to 12.

Cross over the left leaves to the upper-right side and the right leaves over to the upper-left side [144].

Now weave the first leaf (the one closer to you) that's pointing to the left (the one marked blue in picture 144) into the leaves pointing to the right by going over - under - over - under [145].

Next leaf in the opposite pattern: under - over - under - over [146].

3rd leaf like the 1st [147].

4th leaf like the 2nd [148].

Pull all the leaves tight and clip [149].

Bend the first leaf on the right [150] over itself at a 90° angle pointing away from you [151 - 153] and tuck under - over - under [154].

Now bend the 2nd leaf [155] and weave under and over the remaining 2 leaves [156].

Now the first leaf on the left (there should be 6) [157], bend UNDER itself [158 - 159] and weave over - under - over - under - over [160].

Now the next leaf on the left, bend under itself [161 - 162] and weave over - under - over - under [163].

Pull tight all the leaves and clip [164 - 165].

Take the 1st leaf on the left [166]. See how it "grabs" the horizontal row when it bends over [167]. Skip 2 rows and tuck under the 3rd [168]. Pull tight and cut [169 - 171]. (Now I have scissors because I'm back home.)

Now the 3rd leaf on the left [172 - 174].

Now the 2nd leaf on the right [175 - 177].

Turn the whole thing over [178 - 179].

Pull back the flap in the front so you can work easier [180 - 181].

Bend over, tuck, and cut all the leaves except the top 2 [182 - 183]

Now do the top one on the right [184 - 185].

Now flip the whole thingamajiggy over [186 - 188] and do the last leaf [189 - 190].

Make sure to pull any leftover the bobby pins and... you're done! [191]

Great job!

Pull off 2 double-leaves from the plam branch, and split each in half like we did in pictures 6 & 7.

We're going to do the same as we did in step 2, except we're going to start with a single bent-over leaf instead of 2 overlapping leaves.

Take one leaf, with the fat end on the left and the pointy end on the right.

Now bend over the right side at a 90° angle so that it now points down [195]. There should be enough leaf on the left to be able to fold over twice, so about 2 leaf-widths (~inch, ~2 or 3 cm, or more) [196]. In the picture I did more than that but that's because I'm ignoring the soft part of the leaf's fat end. If you look close in the picture you can see a faint brown line where the soft and stiff parts of the leaf meet.

Now bend over [197 - 198] the vertical leaf to the left, and bend it again [199] and press it flat [200]. This is the same "double roll" that we did in the beginning of this Instructable, shown in picture 14.

And now we continue just like in step 2.

Bring the pointy end of the leaf around the bottom, going behind the knot and down into the knot [201]. Here, when you insert it in it will look slightly different than when we did it with the 2 leaves, so see picture 202 where it shows the leaf going inside the knot, but on the side closer to you.

Pull the loop closed [203] until it's tight [204].

Now, make another loop by going around again [205] but this time we won't close it tight. We'll just leave it as a loop [206 - 207].

Before putting the Lulav (Palm Branch) into the holder, we're going to put 3 rings onto the Lulav itself. It's harder to put them on after the Lulav is in the holder.

Slip one loop over the Lulav [209], near the top. You should leave at least a tefach (~4 inches or 10 cm) of the lulav above the loop so that it can shake.

Now pull the loop tight closed [210].

Now loop around another time [211] and pull tight [212].

I never really know how to close it up at this point, but what I usually do is bend the leaf back and down to the right, then point it up, and insert it in between the Lulav and the loop, or between the layers of loops [213].

Pull tight [214] and cut the part that sticks out above the loop [215].

Now put on another loop, slipping it on from the bottom, and placing it a bit below the 1st.

And a 3rd one a bit below the 2nd [216].

In the pictures, I put the Lulav into the holder before the other species (in the side tubes) but it's easier to put the other species in first and then the Lulav. The Lulav tends to make the whole thing pretty tight and it's hard to slip anything else in.

But anyway, just following the order of the pictures:

Insert the bottom of the Lulav in between the 2 tubes, where there's a little gap between the tubes [217 - 221].

Now push down on the length of the tube on the right of the Lulav to open it up [222] and put the 2 hadassim in there [223]. I didn't have hadassim with me, so I used some Palm leaves instead to demonstrate in the picture.

Now put the aravos in the left tube with their tops a bit lower than the tops of the hadassim [224].

Now slip the last looped ring on the bottom [225], going over all the bottoms of the different species and the holder [226 - 227]. Pull tight

Loop the leaf around another time [228], wrap it in from the bottom up [229] cut [230] and...

You're done! [231 - 232].

Thanks for following! This was my first Instructable and it was really fun to make, though much more work than I originally thought, what with all the pictures and arrows and stuff. Makes me appreciate more some of the projects people do on this site.

Thanks!