[Avodah] Chabad on Arba Minim (Baal Tosef?)

[Micha Berger]

On Sat, Jan 10, 2009 at 07:09:33PM -0500, Zev Sero wrote:
: Not just chassidim.  The rishonim quote customs of taking 68 (gematria
: lulav), 69 (gematria hadas), or 70 (like the parei hachag).  The Tur
: quotes Rav Amram as saying that the custom in his yeshivah was to take
: no fewer than 68 hadassim, and some took up to 70.

Chernoble descended Chassidim (Chernoble, Boston, Tolna, Skver, ... look
for rabbeim named "Twersky") many of the Rtend to have 2 PAIRS of aravos
and 3 SETS OF THREE hadasim. (I mentioned this in Oct, v23n209, in a
discussion of "Lulov Pockets" and the picture on the back of a bayis
sheini period dinar.)

...
: The Rambam  (Lulav 7:7) encourages adding to the hadassim but rules that
: one may not add to the aravot, but he later changed his mind and allowed
: extra aravot as well...

An argument against the former position... How could there be a machloqes
in which the chachamim require 2 aravos, and R' Aqiva would require
1 -- and thus consider using 2 assur? There would be no way to have a
norm that was okay lekhol hadei'os. And yet, this is a din carried out
by everyone, annually. How would the machloqes sustain itself? Aren't
machloqesin in such dinim (eg order of parshiyos in tefillin) about
which is preferred existing shitos, not where the shitos are mutually
exclusive? Puq chazi! Was there ever an aravos shortage in which knowledge
of the norm(s) was lost?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             It is harder to eat the day before Yom Kippur
micha at aishdas.org        with the proper intent than to fast on Yom
http://www.aishdas.org   Kippur with that intent.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                       - Rabbi Israel Salanter