[Avodah] Not hadar is pasul

[Zev Sero]

On 01/10/17 20:52, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
> This thread may be running into a vocabulary problem. My understanding
> is that "hadar" and "mehudar" mean two different things, and some
> people tend to confuse the two.
> 
> "Hadar" refers to the absolute minimum requirements, without which the
> minim are posul, and "mehudar" refers to things which Chazal consider
> as making the minim even more beautiful. "Hadar" is required, and
> "mehudar" is desirable.

I don't think they're two very different things, they're just degrees of 
the same thing.  From "pri etz hadar" we learn that beauty is a base 
requirement, at least for the first day.  If it's not beautiful it's not 
kosher.  From "zeh keli ve'anvehu" we learn that we should want all 
mitzvos, including this one, to be as beautiful as we can make them, 
given our resources.

But baseline beauty itself requires more than the bare minimum that 
would otherwise apply; an esrog that is exactly as big as an egg fits 
the basic shiur, but the poskim think it obvious that to do the bare 
minimum is not beautiful, so they say hadar means it must be at least a 
bit bigger, if possible.  If it's not possible, then we make do with the 
bare shiur.

-- 
Zev Sero                May 2017, with its *nine* days of Chanukah,
zev at sero.name           be a brilliant year for us all