[Avodah] Age of "Ancient" Minhagim

[Michael Poppers]

In Avodah Digest V26#15, RKB replied to me:
>> ...Not only is it a relatively-recent phenomenon that many take for
granted nowadays, but it's downright improper (e.g. see BH 17:4, quoted in
MB 17:10, as well as MhSh ad loc.) in an era when most parents can afford
to buy taleisim for their sons (and do purchase talisei qatan for those
sons even years prior to age 13 mishum chinuch). <<
> The source for this minhag is the Maharil, darshening the juxtaposition
of "Gedilim ta'aseh l'cha" (Devarim 22:12) with "ki yikach ish ishah"
(Devarm 22:13). If that's recent, then I'd be hard pressed to find an
Ashkenazi minhag that isn't recent. <
If the matter was that simple, one might understand what many Ostjuden do
despite the response of BH 17:4 and of MhSh on MA 17:3 to which I
previously alluded (also, in general re this issue, let me mention MA 8:3,
quoting BT Qidushin 29b [the implication is that a young man should also
wear a talis gadol prior to marriage but not cover his head w/ it <even if
he's a talmid chachamim> until he's married], even if BH considers that
point "eino muchrach"), but the matter is not that simple.  In this
particular case, AIUI, a sh'eila to MaHaRYL (Hilchos Nisuin -- see bottom
of page at http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=8918&pgnum=129) indeed
noted that young men in the shoeil's community didn't wear taleisim until
their marriage, but MaHaRYL didn't per se agree w/ that custom (he did "go
w/ the flow" of that shoeil's custom, as pos'qim have always done, and he
did tell the shoeil that the latter had not acted properly in being
misateif lichvod haregel [chag haShavuos] instead of waiting 'til the
chas'nah...and NB that BH 17:4 is careful to mention what was "written in
d'rashos MaHaRYL" and what "sam'chu *lahem*" but doesn't say that MaHaRYL
sanctioned the custom); the custom apparently spread across much of Europe
not because of that shoeil's community's custom (or its recording by
talmidei MaHaRYL) but much later, perhaps when m'qubalim suggested, based
on BT Y'vamos 62b's "kal adam sheain lo ishah," that young men prior to
marriage don't have a sufficient level of simcha for atifas talis.

All the best from
--Michael Poppers via RIM pager
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