[Avodah] Ikkarim redux

[Moshe Yehuda Gluck]

MYG:
*> 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.)

R' MS:
*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....


I see Minhag as a type of Psak. I don't have Mareh Mekomos, but I suspect
that RAMBAM, too, saw it that way, as the source for the idea is in the
Gemara. (I assume that by "the author of the ikkarim" you mean RAMBAM and
not the author of the Sefer HaIkkarim.) I am also not sure that the
mechanism driving the fact that Minhag can decide Psak is based on Amcha
deciding the correct Mehalech - I rather suspect it is because either the
RBSO generally sees to it that the Amcha don't make mistakes; or, because we
assume that Amcha are basing themselves on reputable authorities. (IIRC,
I've seen the Aishel Avrohom (Butchatch) say the first idea.)

KT,
MYG