[Avodah] "Ancient" Minhagim

[Harvey Benton]

I mean no disrespect to your father, but other jewish practices and sects have also survived the test of time - including xians and karaites.  That doesnt mean they are legitimate.  What if chabads errant beliefs and practices stand for CV another 100 years?  Would that legitimize them?  I feel that my original ? still stands - ie what principles, halachic or otherwise, do we have to guide us when new practices arise?  Kol Tuv, HB

T613K at aol.com wrote: 
>  Re: Avodah Digest, Vol 26, Issue 3 dated 2 Jan. '09 
>    
>  My father once commented to me that had he lived at the time of the Vilna 
> Gaon, he would never have become a chossid.  His basic posture towards 
> anything new was similar to that of the Chasam Sofer -- "Chadash assur 
>  min haTorah."  Chassidus did stand the test of time and since his 
> father and grandfather had been Gerrer chassidim, my father was too.  (He 
> also told me that his grandfather -- or maybe great-grandfather, I'm not sure -- 
> became a chossid because among the non-chassidim, he was the last frum person in 
> his town and there was nowhere else to go.  My father said that chassidus 
> saved yahadus in Poland.) 
>    
>  --Toby Katz ========== -------------------- 
>    
>  Message: 
>   2 Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 > Well as you know, I do not 
>   look kindly on ancient minhagim > that are less than thirty years old. 
>   Get back to me when > women have been reading ketubot at weddings for a 
>   hundred > years or more...[--TK] R. Micha Berger 
>   wrote: >>How big of a breach >>can mimetic halakhah absorb 
>   and still survive to guide us. 
>   R' Harvey Benton harveybenton at yahoo.com  wrote: 
>    >>In general, throughout history, what has 
>   guided the Jewish Nation in its adoption and eventual acceptance of new 
>   Minhagim??  The Arizal had many innovations, as did Chasidus.  
>   Speaking Yiddish (though probably not a Minhag) and considering it a Heilige 
>   Language does not go back to Har Sinai.  Kenneth Miller mentioned silver 
>   Ataras on Taleisim, etc. How are we supposed to know what is a valid 
>   practice, and what is a Minhag Shtus?  Do we only find out about a 
>   Minhag's validity after a 100 years of its 
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