Question

To our teacher, from whose enlightening writings we benefit, Rabbi Michael Abraham, may he live long and well,

I had a doubt regarding the prohibition of “do not add” as applied to the laws of Hanukkah candles, and this is the language of the Pri Megadim (General Introduction to Orach Chayim, Part One, letter 40): “Now, with regard to rabbinic commandments, the prohibition of adding applies, etc.” [that is, it is difficult: how did they permit adding extra Hanukkah candles for those who enhance the commandment?]. “And if we say, like Tosafot in Rosh Hashanah (16b and 28b), that when performing a commandment there are cases where there is no prohibition of adding, then it is understandable” [that is, adding an extra candle is like performing the commandment twice]. “And if we say, like the novellae of the Rashba and other decisors, that even in such a case one violates the prohibition of adding, then we will say” [that is, we will prove from here that] “with rabbinic commandments there is no prohibition of adding; see there.” End quote.
Now, the claim that performing a commandment twice involves the prohibition of adding is not stated explicitly in the Rashba’s novellae, but is inferred indirectly, because it appears that he learned this from the Rashba’s words (Rosh Hashanah 16b), where he raised Tosafot’s question: how do they sound the shofar twice and not violate the prohibition of adding? And he did not answer as Tosafot answered, that performing the commandment twice does not involve the prohibition of adding, but instead answered that since it is an enactment of the rabbinic court, there is no prohibition of adding. We see that he holds that even performing the commandment twice does involve the prohibition of adding.
But this requires clarification, because according to this, what relevance does the law of enhancing the Hanukkah candle commandment have to the prohibition of adding? That very enhancement is the form of the enactment itself: one candle suffices, and enhancement means adding more. It is not performing the same commandment twice, such as sounding the shofar twice. Rather, the enactment fundamentally is one candle, and its enhancement is additional candles. That itself is the definition and form of the rabbinic enactment of the commandment—so what does this have to do with a concern of the prohibition of adding?
[My revered father, may he live long and well, once told me that I had not understood the Pri Megadim at all, because in his view there is really a fundamental question in the laws of “do not add”: whether adding a rabbinic commandment is itself considered a violation of “do not add.” In other words, the problematic thing is the very addition of the commandment—not whether there is one candle or two, or whether someone lights candles in five places. That is what he is discussing. But we did not remain in disagreement about this.]
 
Signed in self-effacement,
The youngest among the students