[Avodah] Interlocking the Fingers of the Right Hand with the Fingers of the Left Hand

[Chanoch (Ken) Bloom]

On Fri, 2011-08-19 at 00:14 +0100, Allan Engel wrote:
>         On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 4:39 AM, Yosef Gavriel
>         Bechhofer <rygb at aishdas.org> wrote: you often see Catholic
>         priests holding their hands in that manner - ha'lo davar hu.
> 
> 
> Do any of the poskim who bring this down as halocho offer this reason?
> Surely that would come under the heading of Bechukoseihem Lo
> Seileichu or something similar, rather than Sakono?
> 
> 
> In any event, I'm not sure anyone has addressed my original query, by
> what right or mechanism can new Issurim be enacted after Ravina and
> Rav Ashi? If there is no source in the Torah, Mishna or Gemoro, why
> doesn't it transgress the prohibition against adding Mitsvos? (One
> could also ask the same question about the Tzavo'o of Reb Yehuda
> Hechosid.)

Because the Zohar is considered a Tannitic text, similar to the
midrashei halachah. (Though I understand some dispute this, those who
pasken by the Zohar accept it as a Tannitic text.) So the issue that's
really at question here is what gives us the right to pasken like the
Zohar against or in addition to the Bavli. But then you could ask the
same question about halachot that come from the Yerushalmi or from the
midrashei halachah (Ma'aser Kesafim is one such example, quoted from the
Sifrei by Tosafot Ta'anit 9a).

--Ken