Reply To: Relive Hakhel!

UJM, Gadolhadorah,

You’re very welcome,
Of course, despite all different דרכים, we can always find things which we can agree upon.

Avira,

RE Tefillin:

Good question.
In לקוטי שיחות חלק לד ע’ 211 ואילך, the Rebbe addresses the difference between תפלין, ציצית, וכדומה and Hakhel.
In short: Although the kavana is very important by putting Tefillin, it is not a part of גוף המצוה. Whereas there are certain מצוות (e.g. מצות תפלה) that the kavana is part of the mitzva itself, and not just a condition to fulfilling the mitzva.
The Rebbe is מדייק there from lashon harambam that Hakhel belongs to the latter catogory, thus strengthening נצחיות המצוה.
The Rebbe explains this at length with many sources, and he also explains where in the pesukim the Rambam learned this from.

If you are indeed interested in learning (“תורה היא וללמוד אני צריך”), I would suggest you take a look here: https://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=14957&st=&pgnum=223

RE בל תוסיף
Obviously, no one is ch”v saying that this is actually the mitzva of Hakhel itself nowadays (ראה לקוטי שיחות שם הערה 38). I don’t think that borrowing the name of a mitzva בשם המושאל constitutes bal tosif, but if your rov says so, I guess you should obey.

Ah gutten moed!

[P.S. RE Writing on Chol Homoed:
I haven’t put much thought into it. I am used to writing in Lashon Hakodesh, and I usually add מפני קדושת המועד. So I guess when I’m typing I do the same sometimes. I haven’t really looked into the differece between typing and writing (though I would assume that typing is much more linient), nor the difference between English and Lashon Hakodesh. Maybe you can be more מאריך about this in a seperate thread.]