Defining Hiddur Mitzvah

I've mentioned before that I like to shop locally. For one thing, it's a savings in time not to be running around all over the city looking for something that is available in my backyard for less expenditure of time, and yes, sometimes of money as well. For many years I was the one to buy our lulav and esrog for Sukkot, and I bought at the local seforim store. Because I was the one to buy these things I was also the one who noticed that the price was going up and up from one year to the next. Granted, everything seems to have gone up in price, so it wasn't a surprise that a lulav and esrog should also be getting more expensive.

But the lulav/esrog buying expedition was further complicated by the idea of hiddur mitzvah. There were the "ordinary" lulav/esrog sets and then there were the "extraordinary" ones, the ones for hiddur mitzvah. And then there was the price differential between ordinary and extraordinary. I will admit that on my last buying expedition I was truly getting fed up with what those extraordinary esrogim cost. The store clerk had placed a number of esrogim out on the counter in front of me, with a price differential of well over $100. So, I decided to test out something. When the clerk turned to serve another customer, I switched around a few esrogim out of their original boxes. When he came back to me I asked him to explain in detail why one esrog should cost so much more than another. He picked up what should have been the more expensive esrog and began to wax lyrical about its "hechsher," about its physical beauty and perfection, and then pointed to what he thought were the less perfect esrogim and showed me how they had a tiny flaw that made them less expensive, less "beautiful." Yes, I let him talk and then pointed out that I had switched the esrogim and even he, supposedly a maven, didn't know which was which. And yes, I put back the esrogim in their original boxes.

The upshot, however, is that I decided that I was going to expand my shopping area for lulav/esrog sets. I reasoned that Brooklyn would be a better place to shop for them. I reasoned that with more people in Brooklyn, and more seforim stores and more trailers set up selling the sets, the prices would be better. Yes and no. I walked into the largest of the seforim stores in Flatbush and asked to see the lulav/esrog sets. And again hiddur mitzvah raised its head. The ordinary sets were a bit cheaper than those being sold in my neighborhood, but those "extraordinary" sets were with prices off the wall. I also looked at some of those sets being sold on the busy street corners. Yes, some sets were way less than those in the stores, but I'd never seen a lulav only two feet long before. And I've seen grapes bigger than some of those esrogim.

I came home and told my husband about what a lulav and esrog would cost us, on average, and his mouth fell open. He happened to speak to his best friend about this and the best friend laughed. He told us to leave the lulav/esrog buying to him. Starting last year that's what we did, and oh what a surprise we were in for. He buys not only for himself but also for his sons in law and for his neighbors and then there was for us.

He bought for us again this year. We purchased two sets, one for my husband and one for my son. The esrogim are absolutely beautiful both in shape and in skin condition. They carry an Israeli hechsher. The lulavim are full, tall and supple. And each set cost $11, purchased in Boro Park on the Thursday before yom tov. Yes, you read that correctly--$11. No one, looking at these sets, would be able in any way to find a flaw; in fact, the opposite is true--there are those who kidded my husband that he finally spent the money to get a real hiddur mitzvah set.

The talk in the neighborhood was that the "better" sets were going for $120 and way upwards. One person mentioned a set that his son in law had purchased for $275. A nephew in Israel called his mom to discuss which set he should buy--the one for $100 or the "better" set for $130. And one person mentioned a "top of the line" set that ran over $500.

In a time period where people are desperately looking for ways to cut down on expenditures, where they are searching for ways to pay the bills, where money is in short supply, what real justification is there for spending the kind of money being asked for hiddur mitzvah lulav/esrog sets? Especially when the same beauty can be purchased a bit later for pennies on the dollar? Especially when most people couldn't tell the difference if you switched the esrogim? Yes, a really poor esrog may be obvious. But when you get to those being sold as good and as extraordinary very few, if any, people can tell the difference physically; the difference is all in the price being paid.

Frum Jews have gotten a reputation--not all that deserved--for being smart about money, about getting more for less. Not, apparently, when it comes to buying lulav/esrog sets. There it seems to be the operative statement that "a fool and his money are soon parted." I understand in theory the idea of hiddur mitzvah, and yes, there are some esrogim and lulavim that look more beautiful than others. But at what cost and at what price?