Q&A: I Don’t Want Mehadrin
I Don’t Want Mehadrin
Question
Hello Rabbi Michi,
If a person wants to light only one candle on Hanukkah because he doesn’t have the patience to light all the candles, do you think that is halakhically problematic?
My question comes from two angles:
A) From the standpoint of the Jewish custom of observing the mitzvah at the level of mehadrin min hamehadrin.
B) And mainly—from the standpoint that this shows he is treating the commandment with contempt, by not investing in something so simple to do.
I’d be glad to hear what you think.
Answer
A. From the standpoint of custom, it isn’t clear to me that there is a problem. The Sages defined this as mehadrin min hamehadrin, and therefore it is possible that it does not have the force of a binding custom. From the very definition, the Sages are saying that each person can choose at what level of beautification to perform it. Although I once explained that here the enhancement is actually part of the law itself. As a commemoration of the enhancement that was done then (when they lit with pure oil), they instituted for future generations that people should beautify the mitzvah. But they could not establish this as an obligation, because then it would no longer be an enhancement but the basic law itself. So they left it as an enhancement, but the expectation is that everyone should observe it in the enhanced way. According to this, there is in fact a kind of obligation to enhance.
B. Obviously, if he does this just because he has no patience, then he is treating the mitzvah with contempt. What is the question?
Discussion on Answer
P.S. Have you put your novel idea about the enactment of mehadrin on Hanukkah into writing? I’d be glad for a reference.
What does that have to do with it? He fulfills the commandment, but not the enhancement. And if he does not enhance it because of laziness, then he is treating it with contempt.
By the way, I once wrote that the law of enhancing a mitzvah is not optional but obligatory, learned from the verse, “This is my God and I will glorify Him.” The reason many mistakenly think it is voluntary and not obligatory is that the enhancement does not invalidate the mitzvah. But that is a mistake. It does not invalidate the mitzvah itself, but there is still a commandment of enhancement that was not fulfilled.
And this is similar to the common mistake that tekhelet in tzitzit is a voluntary enhancement and not obligatory. But that is of course a mistake. The tekhelet does not invalidate the white strings, but clearly there is also a commandment of tekhelet that was not fulfilled.
Thank you for these wonderful and original ideas.
With God’s help, 2 Tevet 5781
Regarding tekhelet in our time, I raised the argument that in our current situation, if every mitzvah-observant Jew were to order tekhelet strings, all the snails would become extinct within a short time.
Seemingly, the enhancement involved in fulfilling the commandment of tekhelet is built on the fact that not everyone is scrupulous about it, and only because those who are are few, and this enhancement does not become a “categorical imperative”—only in its minority form can it exist. This requires clarification.
Best regards,
Yaron Fischl Ordner
Regarding B: the question stems from the fact that in the end he is fulfilling the commandment that the Sages instituted. Can someone who does not observe the mehadrin min hamehadrin level be called someone who treats the mitzvah with contempt, so that, just as an illustration, points would be deducted for this in Heaven?