[Avodah] The Gra on Aleinu

[rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com]

RDR:
> Is that really true? Siddur Ezor Eliyahu says that all early Ashkenazic
> siddurim lack it (and that adding it is a Lurianic custom), and Siddur
> Maharal says that the
...

Wolpoe's Law or first rule of TSBP

We often know the WHAT
Without knowing the [Correct] WHY.

Examples abound

A. Maharil says a persons should not be Sandek twice for same family.
Maharil claims Midrash is source

Yet Bei'ur HaGra claims R Yehudah Hachasid is the correct source. (I
can get mar'eh meqomos if necessary.

B. Ashkenazim duchan only on Yom Tov. Rema asserts Simcha. As the
underlying dynamic
I dismiss this reason. Why?
One svara
RH + YK - Yes
Shabbos hol hamoed - NO?  And it's due to simcha?  Hmmm

NB: I do NOT dismiss the minhag. I just presume the Rema was speculating
the WHY but was sure of the WHAT. So I DO respect his P'saq but dismiss
his rationale as a guess.

----------------------

C. Even reasons given in the Talmud MAY be misleading. EG Friday night
Qiddush in shul for or'chim is not necessarily THE definitive reason.
This indeed is the teirutz given. - but for Sh'muel's sheeta only. And
there are reasons given by pos'qim aside from or'chim (EG refuah for
the legs)

D. Even the common minhag of waiting 6 hours after meat before dairy
has a machloqes between Rambam and Rashba as to the WHY - even though
they agree on the WHAT.

*******************

That is why I oppose
some halachic revisions because they pre-suppose we have a definitive WHY.
Support for my svara can be founde EG in AhS on Halei Aku"m.

##############

HOW does it come about that we can know the WHAT w/o knowing the WHY?

My take? Persecutions and migrations kept the mimetic practice in place
but lost the underlying rationales.

KT
RRW
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