[Avodah] Peanuts and other Kitnios

[Samuel Svarc]

>From: "Micha Berger" <micha at aishdas.org>
>Subject: Re: [Avodah] Peanuts and other Kitnios
>
>On Thu, 12 Apr 2007 17:16:13 +0300 R Danny Schoemann <doniels at gmail.com>:
>: As to the "Machon Shilo" thread about "The Psak Halacha Permitting
>: Kitniyot", the kuntras brings the OhS in 453:4 regarding Kitnios:
>: "This issur - since our ancestors accepted it as a Geder - may not be
>: abolished by us MiDin Tora, and those that cast aspersion and treat it
>: lightly prove that they do not have Yiras Shomayim or Yiras Chet and
>: are not expert in the ways of the Torah." (!)
>
>But they aren't talking about abolishiong the issur. They are saying
>that the issur is still fully in force for Ashkenazim. They are
>objecting to an Ashkenazi moving to Israel and remaining an Ashkenazi
>rather than becoming part of Israel's kehillah and following its
>minhag hamaqom (which they assume does not include refraining from
>qitniyos).
>
>And frankly, I'm still unclear as to how they are wrong.

They're wrong because there is no "Israeli kehillah" to join. There are tens
of kehillah's, some of which do keep kitnios. Once there is no minhag
hamakom one shouldn't change his own. What does he gain? He is not making it
any less "agudos, agudos", and he's losing out on his own minhagim, some of
which might be superior to what he's switching to, and some of them are
halachicaly problematic to change.

The Brisker Rav when he came to EY was greeted by the Ziknie Yerushalayim by
Motza (if I'm not mistaken). They had brought along a change of clothing in
the Yerushalmi style. The Griz declined to put them on, whereupon he was
asked, "R' Shmuel Salant, R' Yehoshua Leib Diskin, R' Yosef Chaim
Sonnenfeld, etc. all were m'kabel the levush. Why are you different?" He
answered, that those Gedolim came when there was only one Ashkenaz Kehilla
in Yerushlayim, and they were joining that kehillah. He on the other hand
was coming to a Yerushlayim that has many Ashkenazim that are not part of
the Yishuv Hayashan...

KT,
MSS