[Avodah] Metzitza only six days of the week

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Sep 09, 2012 at 05:32:11PM +1000, Meir Rabi wrote:
: Since we practice Metzitza today as a tradition, unlike the Halacha that
: requires it as a matter of life and death...

It's NOT a given that halakhah only requires it as a matter of life and
death. This is the very topic under machloqes!

And if it were, then why would it continue even as a minhag? We don't do
bloodletting in general as a minhag. All the other refu'os in shas (with
1 exception) are neither halakhah nor minhag. And the one exception --
fish and meat -- is about tzora'as. Not your usual teva illness. So
I would need proof that we consider this particular piece of medical
advice more enshrined as minhag than any other.

One might argue that it's a derabbanan whose cause for legislation was
medical (and apparently was never real). But then it would still be on
the books, and therefore would outrank a melakhah derabbanan.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             In the days of our sages, man didn't sin unless
micha at aishdas.org        he was overcome with a spirit of foolishness.
http://www.aishdas.org   Today, we don't do a mitzvah unless we receive
Fax: (270) 514-1507      a spirit of purity.      - Rav Yisrael Salanter