[Avodah] R' Berkovits = Conservative halacha??

[Richard Wolpoe]

On Tue, Apr 8, 2008 at 2:45 PM, Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org> wrote:

> On Wed, Apr 02, 2008 at 11:39:57PM -0400, Richard Wolpoe wrote:
> : It is quite clear to me that [aftere reading the bio of Rabbiner
> Hirsch]that
> : RSR Hirsch would NOT buy any sort of cognitive dissonance and I would
> : venture the GRA [and perhaps Rambam] would never accomodate this
> dichotomy
> : between theory and practice...
>
> I don't know. Didn't the Gra tell his talmidim to follow minhag avos
> and not change practice based on his shitos? E.g. didn't they say Barukh
> H' leOlam in his shul? (Of course, once he was niftar, things
> changed...)
>
> Tir'u baTov!
> -Micha
>
> --


Gut Gezogt. The Gra and RYBS [aiui] both told people NOT to change minhag
avos based upon their understandings of Halachah.

Nevertheless, their understanding of Halacha seemed to follow more
fundamentalistic texts than mimetics, and in the Gra's case he often
overlooked Ashkenazic texts in favor of a better Talmudic read [e.g. 2 vs 3
matzos in which the Bei'ur hagra dismisses the Rosh based upon the Gmara,
although the Rosh's requirement of 3 matzos is quite defensible imho]

You rarely see RYBS take out a Kitzur and say the altenativee POV has a
solid basis, whilst the Siddur Tehilas Hshme DOES say so re: RBaruch hshem
L'olam

Permit me to illustrate.
R. Maruice Lamm says [Jewish Way in Death and Mourning] there is NO good
reason to wait a year for hakamas matzeiva.  I do not know his sources but
sounds like RYBS type of framing.  While Yekkes do NOT wait a year, many DO
have a minhag to wait and the Kitzur [amongst many]  offer this option. The
sevara is obvious, for during the year the kids mourn a matzeiva is not a
necessary reminder.

IOW, the statement SOUNDS like the common mimetic practice is nonsense. What
might have been better to say, that it is not absoultely necessary to wait a
year because this Minhag is hardly universal.

Many of the statements quoted by Hassidim of the GRA or RYBS come off this
way - imho. That if you do not see it their way, your viewpoint is flawed
somehow.  It does not feel like an eilu v'eilu approach.

Since the GRA/RYBS published little we are always stuck with quotes from
potential zealots who possibly have omitted a  softer more  even-handed
approach.

When I was a teen, an NCSY'er from Boston led Shabbos Minhah and said Sim
Shalom in the Hazaras hashtaz - because the Rav said to do so - even though
it was NOT th minhag of that shul.   Somehow, I  doubt f a kid came from
West Hartford to Boston would have knowingly imposed HIS minhag on a shul
there.


The Rema- aisi -is less absolute. he might see this is the minhag and don't
change it, but he does not say [or insinuate] that the alternative is
somehow flawed.

-- 
Kol Tuv / Best Regards,
RabbiRichWolpoe at Gmail.com
see: http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/
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