[Avodah] Chodosh in Chul

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Nov 02, 2010 at 12:26:01PM -0400, Prof. Levine wrote:
>  Please see http://www.jerusalemkoshernews.com/2010/11/chodosh-in-chul/

By the time I took chadash seriously enough to consider it, Rav Dovid
Lifshitz was too infirm to ask. But shortly before my wedding, RDL told me
to have an AhS in the home, as that will enable me to know the halakhah
as they practiced it back in Litta. (My family, at least for the last
century before WWII, was also from Suvalk.)

Well, the AhS YD 293 discusses the sevara lehaqeil. And his discussion
of Ashkenaz and nearby Polin vs Russia clearly places the US (where 75%
of the wheat is winter wheat, in the qulah domain.

And it's clear from that discussion that in Ashkenazi qehillos, this
was the practice that was nispasheit. Even back in the Chareidim's day,
he describes refraining from chadash as "anshei maaseh machmirim".

See also R' Jachter's discussion of the topic at
<http://koltorah.org/ravj/chadash.htm>.

I have two problems with the whole disccussion:

1- Relying on safeiq or rav presumes that it's i efshar levareir. However,
   R' Yosef Herman (Monsey) manages to publish lists of which products
   are made from yashan. If this is possible, then how may we rely on rov?

2- For most of my life, the US (and much of Europe) grew a surplus of
   wheat. Until last year, when bad whether combined with a poor economy,
   the US typically had a stockpile good for 5-7 years. Now assuming
   the typical commodities seller knows about rotating stock, that you
   don't sell the new while letting the old become altogether unusable,
   why were people finding chadash in their bakeries and supermarkets
   all those years?

   (Okay, if its that question alone, this post should have gone to
   Areivim.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where
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