[Avodah] What is a minhag?

[Ben Waxman]

Yes but what defines a holy religious custom? When the Rema brings down 3 
opinions of the rishonim and says that the minhag is like X, is that a holy 
religious custom/minhag in the same way that say kitniyot are?

And more importantly, why can one choose a to follow or not follow a 
practice as opposed to a minhag? Could the difference simply be how 
widespread the minhag/practice is? If everyone (in your town/your group) 
does it, it is a minhag. If only certain individuals do it, then it is a 
practice and nothing more. Rav Moshe says repeatedly that a minhag which 
only a few know about is not a minhag. That kind of fits in with what I am 
saying.

Ben
----- Original Message ----- >

>
> I believe that the confusion arises in this case because although the 
> technical halachic term "minhag" means "holy religious custom", there is 
> also a colloquial Hebrew term "minhag" which means "practice" or "habit". 
> There are many cases where it is very easy to confuse these terms, but I 
> believe that the qualifiers "shetus" and "ta'us" are added specifically to 
> clarify that they are *not* holy religious customs, but foolish practices 
> and mistaken practices.
>
> But it is still important to have a "formal chiluq". I believe that a 
> "practice" is one where I can choose what I'll do, but a "minhag" is one 
> where I am obligated to follow my family or my community. It is easy to 
> find examples of the latter -- time between meat and dairy, which nusach 
> of davening -- but I'm never really sure of which practices I can choose, 
> and it often ends up going to the LOR on a case-by-case basis.
>
> Akiva Miller