[Avodah] Ikkarim redux

[Meir Shinnar]

>
>
> To possibly add a different perspective, it seems to me that  
> perhaps the
> issue of minhag can be added to the mix. In other words, what is  
> the minhag
> of the majority of Klal Yisrael when it comes to Ikkarei HaDas?  
> Well, just
> about every siddur for hundreds of years included Yigdal and the 13  
> Ani
> Maamins. If so, as far as the psak of minhag is concerned, the 13  
> ikkarim
> are accepted as psak. (Risking R' SM's wrath :-) I'll share  
> something a
> posek told me. He asked a major contemporary posek (MCP) what the  
> minhag by
> a certain aspect of Hilchos vestos was, and the MCP answered that  
> it was
> whatever was printed in the Yiddish pages of the (IIRC) Korban  
> Mincha Siddur
> that discussed Hilchos Niddah. As all Jewish women used to use that  
> as their
> Hilchos Niddah primer, that was the minhag.)
minhag and sociology are closely related.  I don't think that there  
is much doubt that the average person thinks that the 13 ikkarim  
constitute some type of catechism - which is exactly RM Schapiro's  
point - that when one examines the facts, it is difficult to maintain  
that there actually exists a uniform version of the ikkarim which is  
globally accepted.

The debate here is whether halachic criteria factor at all  into the  
ikkarim - but the suggestion that what ikkare emunah are is decided  
by the minhag amcha - rather than by rational analysis and the  
leaders,   would have made the author of the ikkarim cringe...Yes,  
there are halachic issues where the which shita is used depends on  
the minhag - and, as in this post, the question was specifically  
which minhag was the accepted one - and, in general, unless one  
believes it is a minhag taut one does go with what people do.
However, the very idea that ikkare emunah are decided by the amcha  
reflects a fundamental cheapening of the very idea....
(WRT Artscroll - their acceptance is IMHO a case of minhag taut, and  
I will leave it at that..)
Meir Shinnar