[Avodah] minhagei 9 av

[Zev Sero]

Micha Berger wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 21, 2010 at 01:50:49PM -0400, Zev Sero wrote:
>> Beans?!  Where do beans come from?  The minhag is to throw "berelach"
>> (I don't know the English name); perhaps someone misread this as
>> "beblach"!
 
> Which is weird, because the whole point is the name. It's a reference
> to Eikhah 3:10, "Dov oreiv hu li..." Dov = ber, thus throwing berelach
> (which could be taken as "little bears") as a reminder of an enemy
> bursting from ambush?

According to the article the OP linked, that's unlikely to be the
original reason for the minhag.  Name-based explanations usually come
after the fact, to explain established minhagim.


> As for the translation: it's a seed not that different than an acorn or
> filbert, no?

It has thorns, and catches in your clothes or hair. 

 
>>> and who make  siyumim daily [including  9 av to my knowledge]
>> This is a modern minhag L, introduced by the LR in the late '70s
>> or early '80s.  On 9 Av the siyum is on Moed Katan, which is one of
>> the gemaras one may learn on that day. 
 
> In Camp Munk, they made sure to have one night without a siyum.

Why?

> R' Yechiel Aryeh ("Michael") Munk z"l [...] justified the frequent use
> of siyumim to offer fleishig dinners.

Oh.  AFAIK one can't participate in such a seudah unless one would have
done so even had it not been the 9 days.  At any rate, L does not use
these siyumim as a way to eat meat (and certainly not on 9 Av!).
The only times I've ever seen meat eaten in L during the 9 days is at
a bris or pidyon haben.

(This year there was a bris at my shul on Rosh Chodesh Av.  It was in
the early evening, because they baby's first cousin, who is less than
an hour older and lives 250 miles away, had *his* bris in the morning.)

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