[Avodah] Music on Yom Haatzmaut and Lag B'Omer

[Elazar M. Teitz]

>To go back to the opening question, notice that every minhag predating
1948 require aveilus from 2 Iyyar to 17 Iyyar. So you can't simply select
a minhag that omits Yom haAtzma'ut, as one would to attend a wedding
made on a day you personally do observe, most years. (A situation I was
in this Rosh Chodesh.)<

     According to a p'sak of RMF, it isn't necessary to change one's minhag in order to attend a simcha during the period he is observing the mihagei aveilus of s'fira.  The prohibition is against making the simcha during the time one's minhag prohibits it.  It is quite common to see yeshiva bochurim with s'fira beards at weddings during the post-Pesach days of Nissan.

     This p'sak does not mean that one can attend a wedding done on, e.g., 10 Iyar, which no minhag permits.  In that case, it is not only the attendance, but rather the affair itself, which is a violation, .   As for attending a wedding on Yom Atzma'ut, if one holds that there is a halachic right to permit it, then one may attend even if he himself keeps the restrictions (against shaving or listening to music) on that day.  But if his opinion is that we lack the authority to permit the restrictions, then it is the equivalent of a wedding on 10 Iyar, rather than of 26 Nissan -- a day prohibited by halacha, not by one's specific minhag in the observance of that halacha, and he would not be permitted to attend.

EMT