[Avodah] Koach deHeteira Adif vs. Chumeros

[Micha Berger]

RYL asked me in a posting to Areivim about "kashrus lemehadrin" and
implicitly about chumeros in general. How can this be a good idea if
"koach deheteira adif"?

Yet AFAIK, RYL doesn't eat qitniyos on Pesach. 

"Koach deheteira adif" is often misunderstood.

The idiom is used when there is a machloqes tannaim that has two possible
cases, one has more reason to be lequlah than the other. The makhloqes
will be phrased as being about the more machmir case, because it's more
important to show how meiqil the tanna who is matir actually is being.

It's only used twice, Berakhos 60a and Beitza 2b. As Rashi puts it
in Beitza ("deheteira adif leih"), "tov lo lehashmi'einu koach divrei
hamatir".

Chumeros (in the sense of going beyond what one believes is mandatory)
are a powerful tool for avodas Hashem. Like all powerful tools, that is
all the more reason why one has to be careful to use them wisely.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             You will never "find" time for anything.
micha at aishdas.org        If you want time, you must make it.
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