[Avodah] Yom Tov Sheni for Olim LeReget to the Beit Mikdash

[Zev Sero]

Micha Berger wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 10, 2009 at 05:05:41PM -0500, Zev Sero wrote:
> : >I was under the impression that during the time that YT sheni was a 
> : >gezeirah, as opposed to minhag avos, that is, before the fixed calendar
> : 
> : You have that backwards.  Before the fixed calendar it was a practise
> : (minhag, if you like) based on the existence of a safek de'oraisa.
> 
> Not a minhag, a din mishum safeiq deOraisa lehachmir. I'm butting in
> more because of the "what is a minhag?" thread than anything here.

Except that the letter "mitam" explicitly called it a "minhag".  One
can say that they didn't use the term in the same sense we use it.


> The question which I still feel wasn't fully resolved from a month or two
> back was when the first version of the fixed calendar was introduced. Are
> we sure it was after churban bayis, or was there a period of time in
> which they were told to follow minhag avos AND were olim laregel?

Of course it was well after the churban; during the entire time of
the 2nd bayis there was a functioning beis din that was mekadesh
every month, so how could there *not* be a sfeka deyoma in Bavel?
"Shalchu mitam" can only have taken place after Hillel's calendar
was introduced.


> IOW, the question is: Then they were gozerim to continue the practice, was
> it based on who is during Yom Tov where the safeiq would have been (CT),
> or a taqanah on the community one lives in (what most of us do lemaaseh).

The letter was addressed to the Bnei Bavel, and they were commanded to
continue their fathers' minhag.  Surely that means to do whatever it
was that their fathers did.


> The fact that it's not minhag avos trumping minhag hamaqom is
> interesting, since that's the way the taqnah was explained to begin
> with.

Except that "minhag avos" was not the *reason* for the gezeira; the
letter gave an explicit reason for keeping their fathers' minhag,
that had nothing to do with the importance of tradition.  This at
least strongly implies that if not for that reason the Sanhedrin
would have told the Bnei Bavel to start keeping one day.

-- 
Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
                                                     - Margaret Thatcher