[Avodah] What is the source of Chasidim to have hakafos on SA night?

[Zev Sero]

Dov Kay wrote:
> <<I don't even own a copy not to find. However, I recall seeing a long list 
> of
> ta'uyos soferim, and around 10% or so lead to differences lema'aseh. Perhaps
> someone who owns a copy can fill in the gaps in my memory.>>
> 
> I have not seen this sefer, but isn't the custom of refraining from eating 
> milk and fish together based on a to'us soferim in the Shulchan Aruch.  I 
> understand that some Chasidim are quite makpid about this. Is this not an 
> example of a minhag Yisroel being based on a to'us soferim?

It's definitely not a transcription mistake.  The Bet Yosef definitely
wrote and meant it.  The question is whether he made a mistake.  The
Darkei Moshe says, in effect, that the BY got confused, and "nitchalfa
lo basar bechalav", and therefore most Ashkenazim don't follow this BY.
But the Pachad Yitzchak says that it was no mistake, and the BY knew
about a danger connected with mixing fish and milk, not the same one
as the fish/meat danger, and he referrred to the fish/meat danger only
as an example.  Accordingly some Sefardic and Chassidic communities
follow this to one extent or another (see Ben Ish Chai, for instance).

Meanwhile, it's possible that the fish/meat danger *is* the result of
an "error" in transmission.  The gemara says not to eat "binta" with
meat, and everyone translates "binta" as "fish", but there's good
reason to suppose that in fact it's not "fish" in general, but a
specific species of fish which was known in Bavel.  When Jews moved out
of Bavel, and their children learning the gemara asked them what
"binta" was, they told them it was a fish they had back in Bavel;
the children told the grandchildren "it's a fish", and the grandchildren
told the great-grandchildren "it means fish".


-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas