[Avodah] aveilus of Nine Days is equivalent to Shloshim

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Aug 10, 2008 at 03:42:20PM +1000, SBA wrote:
: From: "Moshe Feldman" 
:> Nefesh HaRav p. 191 cites Pischei Tshuva OC 551:3 citing Tshuvas Panim
:> Me'iros that a woman is permitted to have a haircut during the Nine
:> Days given that there are *some* poskim who permit her to have a
:> haircut during Shloshim.  The implication is that the Nine Days are no
:> more chamur than Shloshim.

: What about eating meat? Who bans eat during Shloshim - or even Shiva?

I have a more fundamental problem... Practices for the 9 Days originated
as minhag. RYBS is forced to assume that even minhag must follow
established halachic categories because of his concept of Halakhic Man
and the lack of "rituals" in Yahadus.

To quote RYBS (RARR's "The Rav" vol II, pg 54):

> Judaism must be explained and expounded on a proper level. I have read
> many pamphlets that have been published in the United States with the
> purpose of bringing people closer to Judaism. There is much foolishness
> and narrishkeit in some of these publications. For instance, a recent
> booklet on the Sabbath stressed the importance of a white tablecloth. A
> woman recently told me that the Sabbath is wonderful, and that it
> enhances her spiritual joy when she places a snow-white tablecloth on
> her table. Such pamphlets also speak about a sparkling candelabra. Is
> this true Judaism? You cannot imbue real and basic Judaism by utilizing
> cheap sentimentalism and stressing empty ceremonies. Whoever attempts
> such an approach underestimates the intelligence of the American Jew. If
> you reduce Judaism to religious sentiments and ceremonies, then there is
> no role for rabbis to discharge. Religious sentiments and ceremonies are
> not solely posessed by Orthodox Jewry. All the branches of Judaism have
> ceremonies and rituals.

> This is not the only reason why we must negate such a superficial
> approach. Today in the United States, American Jewish laymen are
> achieving intellectual and metaphysical maturity. They wish to discover
> their roots in depth. We will soon reach a point in time where the
> majority of our congregants will have academic degrees. Through the
> mediums of white tablecloths and polished candelabras, you will not
> bring these people back to Judaism. It is forbidden to publish pamphlets
> of this nature, which emphasize the emotional and ceremonial approaches.

> There is another reason why ceremony will not influence the American
> Jew. In the Unitesd States today, the greatest master of ceremony is
> Hollywood. If a Jew wants ceremony, all he has to do is turn on the
> television set. If our approach stresses the ceremonial side of Judaism
> rather than its moral, ethical, and religious teachings, then our
> viewpoint will soon become bankrupt.

> The only proper course is that of Ezekiel's program for the priests:
> "And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the
> common, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean"
> [Ezekiel 44:23] The rabbi must teach his congregants. He must deepen
> their appreciation of Judaism and not water it down. If we neutralize
> and compromise our teachings, then we are no different than the other
> branches of Judaism.

There is a difference between not establishing qiruv on ceremony, and
dismissing that ceremony has a role altogether. And yet, R' Saul Weiss
quotes him as saying (tr from Yiddish, said to the RCA in 1956):
> [RSR] Hirsch wanted to lead the young generation into the Heichal --
>structuring them for an esthetic beautiful Judaism. A Judaism built on
>ceremony, beautiful sentiments, candle-lighting, a white table-cloth for
>Shabbos, decorating the Sukkah, carying the ethrog in a silver pushka
>and chanting beautifully when they removed the Torah from the Aron.

> German Jews observed the whole Torah, they were careful to fulfill
> mitzvoth kalloth kvachamoroth. Yes, German Jewry was a beautiful
> menorah. They entered the Heichal but they remained chutz l'parocheth
> ... in the Heichal. Torah was lacking! The German Rabbinate kept all
> the minhagim and had noble character traits. Many of our Rabbis can
> learn from them -- but they knew very little Torah. A little Kitzur
> Shulchan Aruch, Chai Adom "oif a shpitz gopel", a little Jewish philophy
> and a little Tanach. There are many here in Amarica who want the yeshiva
> to produce these kind of professional Rabbis, consisting of menorah,
> shulchun, and altar, but who will never life the parocheth of the aron
> ha'aiduth.

> Our Yeshiva, I don't know if it has a Heichal but an Aron it surely
> has... 

And Divrei haShkafah p. 78:
> To the degree that average people in our society attain higher levels
> of knowledge and general intelligence, we cannot imbue them with a
> Jewish standpoint that relies primarily on sentiment and ceremony.

Interestingly, RYBS simultaneously laments the lack of Jewish feeling in
America. On Repentence pp 97-98:
> Even in those neighborhoods made up predominantly of religious Jews,
> one can no longer talk of the 'sanctity of Shabbat.' True, there are
> Jews in America who observe Shabbat... But it is not for Shabbat that
> my heart aches; it is for the forgotten 'erev Shabbat' (eve of the
> Sabbath). There are Shabbat-observing Jews in America, but there are no
> 'erev Shabbat' Jews who go out to greet Shabbat with beating hearts and
> pulsating souls. There are many who observe the precepts with their
> hands, with their feet, and/or with their mouths - but there are few
> indeed who truly know the meaning of the service of the heart!

What is the "erev Shabbos Jew" but a positive portrayal of the same
sentimentality and extra-halachic ceremony?

This is not necessarily a contradiction: RYBS could well have chosen to
emphasize the primary goal, and thus lamented not having time to get
beyond teaching the halakhos shemiras Shabbos. Or, it could just be a
Brisker speaking like a Brisker.

But in any case, this notion of a lack of ceremony is uniquely Brisk,
and perhaps also the perspectrive of Dardaim and other Maimonidians.
For the rest of us, this attitude shouldn't really win the day. Most of
us want our Lekha Dodi, and want it sung.

Which gets back to how we view minhag. RYBS couldn't accept the notion
of enshrining the common acts of "erev Shabbos Jews" as binding minhag.
He had to cast the minhag into halachic categories lest it be sentimental
ceremonialism.

For most of us who lack such objections, why recast the parts of the
minhag that don't fit into the usual categories of aveilus? By what
right can we use sevara to trump minhag in this way -- who said minhag
must conform to halachic sevara? Maybe it takeh is ceremony?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "I hear, then I forget; I see, then I remember;
micha at aishdas.org        I do, then I understand." - Confucius
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