[Avodah] two fictional sects

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 02:54:50PM -0400, Zev Sero wrote:
> On 18/04/2012 2:45 PM, Micha Berger wrote:
>> (Abayei uses the words, when he canonized YT sheini from a minhag to a
>> derabbanan. But that's arguably not the same thing, since it was maqom
>> based.)

> It's not Abaye's lashon; he's just quoting the letter they got from the
> Sanhedrin in EY.  And the letter didn't use it as a halachic concept but
> as a description of what it was that the Sanhedrin was ordering them to
> do.  "Hachaziku minhag avoseichem biydeichem"; not *because* it's minhag
> avoseichem, but because it might come in handy in the future if there's
> ever a troubled time when it's difficult to keep the cheshbon.

1- We don't know if Abayei quoted or paraphrased the letter. But in any
case, he used the words.

2- The words say, roughly: What *was* your minhag avos should be kept
strong, so we're now telling you to continue lehalakhah. There is no
mention of the future, or future problems just of minhag avos. Any
mention of motivation is your own.

Meanwhile, Abayei or the Sanhedrin he is quoting do attribute significance
to minhag avos simply because they thought "minhag avoseikhem" was a
meaningful label. Even if it's not the motivation (and I think that
lacking any other motivation mentioned, it is intended as such), it
is still a source implying the concept existed.

(In any case, I did add "that's arguably not the same thing". The post
you're responding to wasn't about YT sheini; it was about Benei Baishan
and rishonim who explicitly use the idiom "minhag avos" rather than
quoting Mishlei.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 11th day, which is
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