According to the Torah, it is forbidden to add to the Mitzvos. The same applies to the Mitzvos of Sukkah and Lulav, with one exception: one can add as many Hadassim to the Lulav as heâd like. The reason for this may lie in the deeper meaning of the Hadas.
The Queenâs Request
Thereâs a popular expression in America: âThe more, the merrier.â
This means to say that the more you have of something, the better it is, and the happier it is. More can only be better. But in Judaism, this is not necessarily the case.
When Queen Esther sent her request to the Sages, âestablish me for the generations,â to establish the holiday of Purim, the Talmud tells us in Tractate Megillah that the Sages and Prophets of that era did not agree. Rather, they found all the excuses in the world to not have to create a new holiday.
The same thing happened when Queen Esther asked the Sages, âRecord me for the generations,â asking that the Megillah, the Scroll of Esther, be written and added to Scripture. When Esther made her request, the Sages and Prophets were not excited at all at this idea. As the Talmud (Talmud Yerushalmi, Tractate Megillah 1:5) tells us, âThere were 85 elders and of those, 30 plus several prophets were pained by the matter. They said, âThe Torah states, âThese are the mitzvos that G-d commanded Moshe.â This is what Moshe told us: no other prophet is destined to innovate a single thingâand now Mordechai and Esther are asking to innovate something new?!ââ
The Sages of Israel knew that it was forbidden to add to the mitzvos that G-d commanded Moshe. If there are 613 mitzvos, then thatâs it! Itâs illegal to add any new mitzvos to that. Therefore, they were very unexcited by Queen Estherâs request to add a holiday to Judaism.
However, she was the queenâand apparently, thatâs when the entire idea of Rabbinical Mitzvos was born.
As the Talmud tells us: âThere were 48 Prophets and seven Prophetesses who prophesied for Israel, and they did not subtract or add to the mitzvos written in the Torah except for the mitzvah of reading the Megillah.â Thus, reading the Megillah is the first Rabbinical Mitzvah, in which the Prophets literally added an entirely new mitzvah.
Mitzvah Not To Add Mitzvos
As a matter of fact, there is a mitzvah to not add a new mitzvah!
For example, a tallis has four fringes; it is forbidden to put five fringes on a tallisâthe mitzvah specifically requires four, not five or three.
And the same thing applies to time-based mitzvosâyouâre not allowed to add another day to any holiday. âBut we love Sukkos so much! Letâs start it a day earlier. Whatâs so terrible about that? Itâs such a beautiful holiday!â But itâs not allowed.
This is also true for the headpiece of tefillin. It contains four parchment writings, one in each of its four compartments. Itâs forbidden to add another writing or compartment to the head tefillin, and so on and so forth with every mitzvah.
So too with lulav, for one more example: you canât recite the blessing over the lulav once in the morningâand then recite it a second time later because youâre so excited about doing the mitzvah of lulav. You canât even add to the details of the mitzvah: the Torah states that the mitzvah requires four componentsâso we canât add a fifth component to make it more modernized and current. It must be exactly four.
Furthermore, we canât add to the four components themselves. We canât use two lulavim but rather, only one lulav with one esrogâand only two willow branches and not more.
The Exception of Hadassim
But with this particular mitzvah, there is one exception: the hadassim, the myrtle branches.
Halachah tells us that there must be at least three myrtle branchesâbut a person has the choice to add however many hadassim desired. The Chabad custom is to use at least six hadassim. There were times when the Rebbe would use a lulav with 18 hadassim, corresponding to the famous number âChai.â There were also times when the Rebbe used 26 hadassim, the numeric value of G-dâs name, Hashem. And in the last years, the Rebbe used 36 hadassim, which add up to twice Chai.
In various scholarly sources, the custom of using 68 hadassim is also mentionedâ68 is the numeric value of the Hebrew word âlulav.â There are even those who use 100 hadassimâI can only imagine what a lulav with 100 hadassim looks like!
But the question is: why do we break all the rules with hadassim? We are able to use as many as we want, and nobody objects?
The Rambam writes that the entire concept of the hadassim is to lend elegance and beautyâand so the more hadassim you add, the more beautified a mitzvah you have.
Four Personalities
But maybe we can explain it another way.
The Four Species are divided into two categories, as the Talmud tells us: âThere are four species to the mitzvah of lulavâtwo are fruit-bearing and two are not.â The two that bear fruit are the esrog and the date palm tree (which produces the lulav), and two that do not are the hadas and aravah, the myrtle and willow branches.
Even in life we can say that these categories give us four personality types.
There are people like the esrog, who constantly produce âfruitsâ: they are creative and know how to get things done, and they also have a âpleasant aromaââmeaning that heâs nice to have around. But if he doesnât have a âpleasant aroma,â if he âstinks,â, then no one can stand him or get anywhere near him, whether physically or socially. âEsrog peopleâ are pleasant company and are also super-achievers. But there are very few people like thatâwhich is why we only use one esrog: there are not too many âesrogim.â
The lulav, for its part, symbolizes the person with tons of energy, which is why he gets a lot doneâhe âbears fruits.â But heâs not a person pleasant to be aroundâhe yells at people, heâs not the nicest person, and so even if he achieves great things, people donât want to deal with him. And thatâs why you canât add another lulavâbecause nobody wants more of these people around.
Then come the willows. The willow is the type of person who bears no fruits. He doesnât create anything and on top of that, he doesnât smell goodâheâs unpleasant. We donât need too many of that typeâeven two is more than enough.
But the hadassim, the myrtles, on the other hand, are the type of person who doesnât âbear fruitââhe doesnât produce anything and doesnât contribute much to the world. In short, heâs not an achiever. But heâs a person with a âpleasant aromaââitâs nice to be his friend, heâs happy, heâs good-hearted, and itâs fun to be with him.
Do You Have an Aroma?
The entire concept of Sukkos is unity. And to create unity, the most important thing is for a person to have a âpleasant aroma.â Nobody really cares how much you achieved or didâwhat people really want from you is something else altogether. They want you to be a mentch, a gentleman, a pleasant person, and a respectable human being.
Unlike the other types, pleasant people are always welcome in shul, because thatâs the most important thing needed in a communityâwhich is why we can add as many hadassim as we want.
So if you know a myrtle or two or 18, pleaseâbring them to shul! Thereâs always room for more.
This post is also available in: ע×ר×ת