Video: Finding the Perfect Lulav

By COLlive reporter

Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld of the Ohev Sholom synagogue in Washington, DC, was searching for the perfect lulav for Sukkos this year, and Chabad was able to help.

“For several months, I have dreamed of the perfect lulav,” Rabbi Herzfeld told COLlive. “I wanted a unique lulav in order to demonstrate my love of the commandment and my desire to serve Hashem.”

So he set off on a search for a very tall Lulov, which he said would be exciting for the children in his Shul, expressing his joy in the service of Hashem.

He first tried friends in Israel, he said, but the logistics were impossible – even before any attempt to get it through customs to the United States.

After a few attempts to get one from farms in Arizona, all unsuccessful, he had one last hope: Chabad.

Rabbi Herzfeld contacted Rabbi Yossi Cunin, director of Chabad of Beverly Hills in California, who was happy to help.

“Even though it was the night before Rosh Hashanah when every rabbi has a million things to do,” Rabbi Herzfeld told COLlive. “Rabbi Cunin dropped everything and prioritized my search for the perfect lulav.”

Rabbi Cunin called numerous palm tree nurseries, date farms, and random farmers, in his search for the perfect lulav.

He even drove out to a farm to check out a prospective lulav – however they were asking the exorbitant price of $650 for it, and they couldn’t ship it out of state.

Rabbi Herzfeld was about to give up, when Rabbi Cunin noticed something in his garden: a single, Kosher Lulav growing on a tree in his property.

The next morning, a gardener was hired to cut the branch down. It measured nine feet two inches.

Rabbi Herzfeld received the Lulav yesterday, after Rabbi Cunin shipped it to him in a carpet tube.

“I started out looking for the perfect lulav, but what I really found was the perfect friend,” Rabbi Herzfeld said. “Here was a rabbi who dropped everything on the eve of a major holiday in order to help another rabbi in his service of Hashem.”

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