19 October 2005

My Fortunate Acquisition of the Four Species

Having heard of rumors of a lulav shortage this year, I thought for sure I wouldn't bother this year, as the prices would be higher for them and it might be a little difficult to find - fine, call me a pussy on this one. However, it seems that there is no longer any problem with this matter. Nevertheless, I hadn't known about this, or, at least not in earnest. We shall see if people had any real difficulty or not.
I had thought that I would be able to just borrow the use of others' lulavim for this mizvah, so on the first day, I was doing so, when a man in shul said he could *give* me one. I thought, "There's no way he really meant give me, maybe just 'let me use' one." Sure enough, he gave me one set of four species, allowing me to fulfill the Biblical verse of taking them on the first day of the holiday! (This, mind you, is unlike Mar Gavriel, who opines that one need do so beforehand.) Apparently, some guy had donated six sets to the shul to give away! Lucky me.

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