[Avodah] Meron live

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Thu, May 07, 2015 at 10:01:44AM -0400, Prof. Levine via Avodah wrote:
: I have to admit that I simply do not understand the goings on shown
: which I looked at last night, and am now looking at a bit.

: The Sefardim hold one is not allowed to take a haircut the entire
: 33rd day...
: Ashkenazim hold "micktzas ha Yom K'kulo," when it comes to the last
: day of aveilus for someone sitting shiva...

Both of which are minhagim, not halakhah. Also, the minhag is not to
get one's hair cut, rather than cutting someone else's hair, which would
mean you're worried about whether it applies to 3 year olds.

Minhagim evolve, that's what they do. If the Peri Eitz Chaim records the
Ari's position that it's apprpriate to not just refrain from mourning
on Lag baOmer but to celebrate it, there is sufficient motive -- in
the eyes of many. Of course, that "many" wouldn't include the Yekke
qehilos. And I had a choice of bonfires at yeshivos gedolos to go to
last night, had I wanted to. Litta joining in is defintely new.

Yes, many of us know that the PEC really says Lag baOmer is yom simchas
Rashbi, which may or may not be his yahrzeit. "Yom shemeis" is a typo
that reached later editions via a dropped ches. See
http://seforim.blogspot.com/2011/05/printing-mistake-and-mysterious-origins.html
But (as per previous conversations), that also doesn't rule out the
possibility that the day of Rashbi's joy is his yahrzeit. But even
if the Ari said it's the day he started the Zohar, finished it, left
the cave, or whatever, it's  still a day the Ari considered worth
celebrating.

And yes, many of us also know that the whole upsherin-at-the-qever thing
was originally on the 43rd in/to the omer, at Nabi Samwel. (See shu"t
haRadvaz 2:608.) Which makes sense -- Shemu'el was a nazir, and he lived
in the BHMQ starting at age 3. The move to Meron and Lag baOmer happened
when the Ottomans restricted access to the qever in the 1500s.

The Radbaz, R' David b Shelomo ibn Zimra was among the gerushei Sefarad,
who ended up in Tzefas in 1513 and eventually end up in Egypt where
he was RY (he taught the Shitah Mequbetzes, R' Betzalel Ashkenazi)
and ABD. But the version of the minhag he recorded would not pose the
question -- observe the first "half" of the omer, and then a haircut a
week before Shavuos isn't a problem.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 33rd day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        4 weeks and 5 days in/toward the omer.
http://www.aishdas.org   Hod sheb'Hod: LAG B'OMER - What is total
Fax: (270) 514-1507               submission to truth, and what results?