[Avodah] chu'l duchening

[Zev Sero via Avodah]

On 11/10/2015 01:09 PM, saul newman via Avodah wrote:
> http://torasaba.blogspot.com/p/according-to-harav-hagaon-reb-zalman.html
>
> is it a problem for ashkekohanim to duchen not on yom tov?

The minhag is not to.  The revealed reasons for this minhag seem rather
weak, but both the GRA and the Alter Rebbe wanted to change it and were
told not to (in the GRA's case rather dramatically), so the true reason
must be something hidden.   But if a cohen is present when the chazan
calls "cohanim", and he has not yet duchened that day, then he has no
choice; he has a chiyuv de'oraisa to duchen, minhag or no minhag.
Therefore it makes sense to me that he should make sure not to be present
for the call, either by davening elsewhere or just by stepping out
before the call.


> is it a problem for a non-kohen  to go to their local sefardi shul
> [assuming they don't daven there]  to catch duchening daily?

I've never heard of a minhag not to *hear* duchening except on yomtov.
It's not recorded that way anywhere that I've seen.  Normally we can't
hear it because the cohanim are not saying it, but if there are cohanim
who are saying it then why not catch a bracha?  On the contrary, I would
think that if one has had a bad dream one should davka go to a shul where
they are duchening so one can say the RBSO right away instead of waiting
for the next yomtov.


-- 
Zev Sero               All around myself I will wave the green willow
zev at sero.name          The myrtle and the palm and the citron for a week
                And if anyone should ask me the reason why I'm doing that
                I'll say "It's a Jewish thing; if you have a few minutes
                I'll explain it to you".