Q&A: Beautification and "Do Not Add"
Beautification and "Do Not Add"
Question
With God's help,
Hello Rabbi,
I wanted to ask: what is the logic behind "beautifying" a commandment? For example, in the Talmud regarding Hanukkah we see the approach of those who beautify the mitzvah and those who beautify it in the highest manner (whether or not these are two levels of the prohibition of "do not add").
Seemingly, it appears to me that this comes from the rule of "This is my God and I will beautify Him." But if so, then at any rate, where else do we find an actual addition to the act itself as part of the commandment? Seemingly, one could say that this is "do not add," no?
For example, if one wants to beautify and adds another corner to tzitzit, or five sections in the tefillin parchments—that is "do not add."
Answer
A Hanukkah candle is a rabbinic law, and the prohibition of "do not add" does not apply to it. Beyond that, the beautification is part of the enactment of lighting the candle, so in general "do not add" is not relevant here. This is true both because what the Sages enact does not involve "do not add," even regarding a Torah-level law, and because here it is part of the rabbinic enactment itself.
Furthermore, I think I already wrote here in the past that the beautification on Hanukkah is not based on "This is my God and I will beautify Him," since on Hanukkah people beautify the mitzvah by more than one-third. This is beautification as part of the basic law, a remembrance of the beautification that became possible for us through the miracle (to light with pure oil, even though impurity is permitted in communal cases). I explained that in principle there is an obligation to beautify, but it could not be framed as a full obligation, because then people would not do it as beautification.
Discussion on Answer
See column 430, which will be posted shortly.
Of course this is rabbinic, but where else do we find the idea that the entire beautification is like a new mode within the commandment itself (if you understand beautification as literally part of the enactment)? Usually, to beautify means to do the same thing, just in a more honorable way. Like on Sukkot. And it is well known that whatever the Sages enacted, they enacted corresponding to Torah law.
Understanding it as literally part of the enactment is difficult, for example, according to the views about the direction of lighting, or if someone forgot whether he recited the blessing over the lighting after lighting the first candle—in the dispute among the halakhic decisors, according to the conceptual analysis that links these issues to one another.
By the way, after your words I found what you wrote on Google: