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

[Poppers, Michael]

In Avodah V28n105, RAM responded to me:
>> Earlier today, I mentioned the example of unmarried bochurim, even those already b'nei mitzvah, not being misateif batalis -- perhaps that non-action could be defended in an era when taleisim were expensive (especially if the motivation was to avoid agudos, those who could afford taleisim for their boys and those who could not), but why is it treated nowadays, when taleisim are essentially affordable for all, as some sacred, positive minhag? <<
> It is treated "as some sacred, positive minhag" because we've forgotten the reason behind it. All we know is that the previous generation acted this way, and did so deliberately, and so shall we. <
I think RAM Is being too kind.  I'll dare say it's because (a) "we" (i.e. the hamon am) don't know the origins of that Rhine-region custom*; and, more importantly, (b) our community leaders who should know are not taking the steps of buying taleisim for their sons at an appropriate age and explaining to their followers why they are doing so. 

> Perhaps it is comparable to the practice of making simple and inexpensive funerals.... <
Again, for that which is expensive but can be afforded by some in the community, there is room for the leadership to be m'saqein all not spending...and we can recently see this principle at work in re to chas'nas (and perhaps other occasions whose s'udos mitzva have become quite extravagant).  I can't similarly be m'lameid z'chus in re to buying a talis for one's son, especially when done at the time he becomes a Bar Mitzva, when [some]one, be it the father or another person, is spending more on matters quite important (e.g. t'filin for the young man) or not so important. 

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*) Anyone know if such a custom is discussed anywhere other than in [by which I really mean contemporaneously with or prior to] the seifer I noted (which brings t'shuvas MaHaRYL to a sh'eila whose shoeil held by that custom)?

All the best from 
-- Michael Poppers via BB pager