be held together; he does not note that there must be a slight space between the lulav and etrog. Furthermore, Rabbi Shlomo Ganzfried, in the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, says, “We turn the etrog over and holding it close to the lulav, with no separation between them, we wave them towards the four points.” Rabbi Ganzfried states, “shelo yehiyeh peirud beineihem.” He mentions this twice in this paragraph. Therefore, it seems to me, as I’ve observed since childhood, that one should have the etrog touch the spine of the lulav while holding them with both hands and waving the lulav. RABBI ISRAEL ROBINSON Atlanta, Georgia
Rabbi Ari Z. Zivotofsky Responds I thank Rabbi Israel Robinson for his letter. In my article, I did cite a story regarding a dream of Rabbi Menahem Recanati. Rabbi Robinson is correct that my presentation of the story was imprecise, and in the story, as cited by the Taz, Be’er Hateiv and others, the guest, in fact, did not have an etrog at all. In the article, I also quoted an idea attributed to the first Belzer Rebbe that when bringing the etrog in the left hand near the lulav in the right hand, a slight space should be left between them. Rabbi Robinson, while agreeing with the main premise of my article that the etrog and lulav should be in separate hands, suggests that the idea of leaving a space is specious and that the etrog should, in fact, touch the lulav. Permit me to elaborate on this specific point, which was addressed in a more limited manner in the original article. The Shulchan Aruch (OC 651:11) instructs one to “join the etrog to the lulav” (“lechaber”). He does not explicitly comment on whether they should touch or if there should be a space between them. The Mishnah Berurah (651:48) simply reiterates the Shulchan Aruch’s instructions that the etrog should be “mechubar” to the lulav, without elaborating. The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (137:1) twice says to bring the etrog near the lulav (“mekarvo”) so that there should not be a separation between them (“peirud beineihem”). The Aruch Hashulchan (651:9) says that the two hands should be brought near each other for the purpose of joining the etrog with the other three species and, God forbid (“chalilah”), that they should be separated from each other. The Chayei Adam (148:7) writes similarly. It seems to me that the language used in all of these sources is ambiguous regarding whether the lulav and etrog have to actually touch. I think the import of the rulings is that in light of the fact that the etrog and lulav are in different hands, one can potentially hold them far apart, and thus these sources instruct that they should be held near one another. None of these sources explicitly state whether or not they should touch. On the other hand, the idea that I mentioned in my article, that they should be close but have a small space between them, is, as cited in my footnote, from the Kuntras Ha’Acharon (Ta’amei Haminhagim, sec. 792, p. 347). He states this explicitly, based on the Belg
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