[Avodah] Consumer Alert: Minhog Scams On The Rise!

[Lisa Liel]

At 06:45 PM 6/21/2011, you wrote:
>On 21/06/2011 1:17 PM, Prof. Levine wrote:
>>Be this as it may, I have wondered more than once how the ARI could
>>come along and change so many things and have these changes accepted
>>by many communities. It is all the more surprising to me given that he
>>lived for only 38 years according to many sources.
>
>It's because he didn't make anything up himself; everything he taught
>came from his rebbe, Eliyohu Hanovi.  He revealed secrets that had not
>been known before him, so it's logical that people changed their
>minhogim to bring them into line with these new revelations, just as
>the medical discoveries of the past 200 years have caused everyone to
>change their lifestyles.

That's the claim, anyway.  I don't even know if it was his claim, or 
one that came around later, but I suspect that many, many people who 
go by minhag ARI do so simply because it's what they grew up with, 
and would be chagrined, to say the least, to find out that it was 
based on "angelic revelation".

Halakha does not allow for a revelation other than Sinai.  Nevi'im 
can tell us nuances, but a navi who tries to give us "revelation" of 
laws needs to die.

Lisa