a second bite of the apple

Sukkah 46b:

איתמר הפריש שבעה אתרוגין לשבעה ימים אמר רב כל אחת ואחת יוצא בה ואוכלה לאלתר ורב אסי אמר כל אחת ואחת יוצא בה ואוכלה למחר

I'm not interested in the technical details of this machlokes in hil muktzah, whether an esrog set aside for use on a specific day can be eaten on that day after the mitzvah is done or only the next day.  A more minor point: why do Chazal specifically talk about eating the esrog?  Were they so hungry that they needed to take a bite out of it?  Their wives didn't prepare a nice brisket for Y"T?   OK, so you can say it's just an expression and the gemara really means hishtamshus or hana'ah of any kind, but still...

U'likachtem lachem ba'yom ha'rishon pri eitz hadar... u'smachtem lifnei Hashem Elokiechem shivas yamim (Vayikra 23:40)

It was just two weeks ago on Rosh HaShana that we said "zeh ha'yom t'chilas ma'asecha zikaron l'YOM RISHON."  Not that the world was created on R"H, but man was, and our existence gives purpose to everything else.  Had Adam haRishon just made it to Shabbos without sin then the seven days of creation would have been complete in the sense of fulfilling their purpose, and he would have had a great seudas Shabbos, starting with kiddush on the fruit of the eitz hadaas.

But we know that he didn't make it.  He ate from the eitz ha'daas = the esrog (according to some shitos) too soon and the world did not achieve the tikun it needed.

On sukkos we come back to that same "yom rishon" that we spoke about of R"H, we get a second bite of the apple (I know - bad choice of idiom given what we are talking about : )  "U'likachtem lachem ba'YOM ha'RISHON," take it for yourself and seize the opportunity of the "yom ha'rishon" all over again.  This time get it right with the pri eitz ha'dar = the pri of the eitz ha'daas and don't fall for the snake's speech.  

Tiferes Shlomo explains that the gemara speaks about eating the esrog because it is hinting that we get a second bite of the apple, a second taste of the eitz hadaas, the esrog, with the possibility of doing in right this time around.  That is what chag hasukkos is all about.

If we get it right, then we complete the seven days of creation as originally intended, u'smachtem lifnei Hashem Elokeichem shivas yamim.