While all the mitzvot should be performed in the most pleasing manner possible, hiddur mitzvah (the beautification of a mitzvah) has distinct applicability to the arba minim, particularly the etrog, which the Torah specifically defines as “a beautiful fruit.”
In old Jewish Eastern European communities, Jews often lived in cities far from fields; they thus needed to travel far and/or spend great sums of money to procure the arba minim, especially the etrog. Problems acquitting the arba minim were often exacerbated by despotic and tyrannical governments who erected barricades to their import and use and, in some cases, rendered even mere possession of the arba minim a crime.
The Soviet Union was especially notorious for interfering with the Jews’ practice of their faith in general, and their ability to acquire the arba minim in particular. Extraordinary efforts were undertaken by Jewish leaders to bring the arba minim across the Iron Curtain into Russia by smuggling, bribing Soviet officials, and other “illegal” means.
In this 19 Elul, 1972 correspondence on his personal letterhead, Rav Naftali Chaim Adler, the Vizhnitzer Rav of Netanya, writes to Rav Menachem Porush:
In answer to your petition, I hereby advise you of my participation in the purchase of sets of arba minim for our Jewish brothers [“achenu beis Yisroel”] in Russia, in the amount of 500 shekels. May we merit to see [the Russian Jews] on the holy land soon and with joy – may it be the will of God.
The reward for a mitzvah is a mitzvah, to all who fulfill it in good faith. Best regards for a good and blessed year generally and specifically.
Born in Jerusalem, a descendant of both the Lelov and Przysucha dynasties, Rav Adler (1913-95) miraculously escaped the Holocaust and arrived in Eretz Yisrael in 1944, where he served as rav of the Vizhnitz chassidim in Tel Aviv through 1952 before becoming a teacher at Yeshiva Yachel Yisrael in Haifa in 1953.
He subsequently established Bet Midrash Ohel Naftali and kollelim in Netanya and with branches in Haifa, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Bnei Brak, and he published Netzach Shebemalchut, a Pesach Haggadah, and siddurim for the chagim according to the Vizhnitzer liturgy.
Rav Menachem Porush (1916-2010) was an Israel politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Agudat Yisrael and its alliances from 1959-75 and 1977-94. As chairman of the Agudat Yisrael Center in 1955, he founded Children’s Town to promote Jewish education and combat missionary influence.
He also served as deputy head of the Jerusalem city council from 1969-74, served for a time as Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, and established Kiryat HaYeled, an educational center for ultra-Orthodox children in 1973.
Exhibited here is a 1958 correspondence from Rabbi Yehuda Leib Levin, chief rabbi of Moscow, to the Chief Rabbinate in Jerusalem, thanking them for providing him with the arba minim. Rabbi Levin expresses elation about receiving them in time to fulfill “the holy commandment that Hashem commanded us in his holy Torah.” He closes with “thanks to Hashem for permitting us to merit the fulfillment of His commandments, and may He bless you with a gmar chatimah tovah.”
Rav Levin (1894-1971), the spiritual leader of the Moscow religious community beginning in 1957, was both a leading spokesman for Jews in the Soviet Union and a vehement, outspoken opponent of Zionism and Israel.
On one hand, he served as head of the Moscow yeshiva and as a scribe; promoted Jewish study and trained ritual slaughterers and ritual circumcisers; and was a powerful advocate for the needs of Russian Jewry. On the other hand, he declared that there was no such thing as anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union, going so far as to declare in a published Russian government newspaper in March 1970 that the Soviet Union is the true “motherland” for Soviet Jews.
Rav Levin admonished his congregants to have no contact with Israeli embassy personnel who frequently attended his synagogue. He also signed a petition to the American Embassy accusing Soviet Jewish activists in the United States of “emulating fascists” in demonstrating for the opening of the Iron Curtain so that Jews could emigrate to Israel.
In this 24 Elul 1968 correspondence to Rav Porush on his Romanian Chief Rabbi letterhead, Rav Moshe Rosen writes:
Many thanks for your 10 Elul correspondence and, if God wills it, we will receive the 30 sets of etrogim–lulavim–hadassim, which we will acknowledge upon receipt, and may Hashem who is good repay you for your work to give merit to those who are eager to fulfill the mitzvah of “and you shall take for yourself a beautiful fruit” [i.e., an etrog].
Rav Rosen (1912-94) was one of the most colorful and controversial Jewish leaders in post-Holocaust Eastern Europe. Elected chief rabbi of Romania under communist auspices in 1948, a position he held for 46 years until his death, he walked a delicate political tightrope, as he successfully traded off sycophantic public obsequiousness to Romanian dictator Ceausescu in exchange for religious and community rights for Jews in Romania, a testament to his great persistence and skill.
The rights Rosen won for Jews included the right to emigrate, and he oversaw a tremendous exodus of some 400,000 Romanian Jews to Eretz Yisrael and elsewhere. He also won dispensations that permitted synagogues to function and that authorized the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee to operate in Romania, enabling the Jews remaining there to lead proper Jewish lives – including, as evidenced by our letter, the right to pray and use the arba minim during Sukkot!
In this September 27, 1950 correspondence on his official prime minister letterhead, Ben-Gurion writes to David Tzvi Pinkas in the latter’s capacity as president of the Great Synagogue in Tel Aviv:
I received your gift and I thank you from the depths of my heart.
I read with great interest the multiple symbols that you ascribe to the arba minim, and I join with all my heart in the good intentions of your greetings, and I send my blessings to all the mitpallilim [those praying] in the Great Synagogue.
Pinkas had apparently sent a set of the arba minim to Ben-Gurion to encourage him, as Israel’s head of state, to perform this important and beautiful mitzvah. Though enormously well-versed in scripture and Jewish learning, Ben-Gurion held radically anti-halacha views and famously believed that Orthodox Judaism would not survive in Israel for more than a few decades.
Ordinarily, one might reasonably conclude that it was highly unlikely that he actually performed the mitzvah but, as it turns out, Ben-Gurion was known to publicly perform certain Torah commandments in his role as head of state. In particular, he built a sukkah every year and invited important leaders to sit with him and eat in it. For example, shown here is a rare photograph originally signed by Ben-Gurion of him leaving the sukkah with Levi Eshkol, who succeeded Ben Gurion as prime minister.
Pinkas (1895-1952), a signatory of the Israeli Declaration of Independence, was born into a religious Zionist family and studied in both yeshiva and university before making Aliyah to Eretz Yisrael in 1925. After Israel’s War of Independence, he served as a member of the Provisional State Council and, in Israel’s first elections, was elected to the Knesset as a member of the United Religious Front in 1949 and served as chairman of the influential finance committee. In an important – and highly controversial – move while serving as Minister of Transportation in 1951, he stopped public transportation from operating on Shabbat.
The Great Synagogue of Tel Aviv was completed in 1926 through a donation by Baron Rothschild and was later renovated with a new external façade of arches in 1970 and stained-glass windows replicating those of European synagogues that had been destroyed during the Holocaust. The emigration of the local residents during the 1960s brought about a significant reduction in the number of prayer-goers there so that the building is currently used by only few congregants who pray there on holidays and special occasions.
In this October 5, 1997 correspondence on his Mayor of Jerusalem letterhead, Ehud Olmert, who later became Israel’s prime minister (2006-09), writes to Rav Porush about a Sukkot donation: “In continuation of your letter to me from 8 Elul 1997, enclosed is my personal check in the sum of 100 shekalim for sending etrogim and lulavim for the distant communities of Carpathia and Ukraine [both in Russia]. “
As prime minister, Olmert publicly performed the blessings over the arba minim as part of his annual Sukkot celebration, which included building a Sukkah at his residence and hosting guests there.
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Wishing a happy and healthy holiday to all, and may the beautiful prophecy of Amos 9:11 – that Hashem will reestablish for us the Sukkah of King David that has fallen – be fulfilled.
