[Avodah] RMF Mattir Neder Gebrochts

[Isaac Balbin via Avodah]

`On the matter of Gebrochts, R’MG Rabi wrote in Issue 43

> Is it inconceivable that Reb Moshe arranged being Mattir the Neder just to
> make the guest feel good? When in fact he really considered that it was not
> a Minhag at all and does not require Hatarah.
> 
> RMF called over 2 guys in the yeshiva and had my friend "matir neder" on
> the spot and said now you can eat Gebrochts and you may eat at my seder.
> 

and in Issue 44

> May we assert that no matter the number of participants who follow a
> custom, the numbers do not make a binding Minhag that requires Hatarah -
> as R H Schachter wrote about eating hard Matza.
> 
> May I venture that a Posek who suggests that it does require [or will not
> permit] Hatarah is also only protecting broader issues or being polite. A
> Posek's opinion is therefore no better than the position taken by Reb
> Moshe. What we require is that the matter have some Halachic foundation.
> But we have yet to see any practical/Halachic foundation that there is
> a risk that Matzos may become Chamets if they become wet.

Mori V’Rabbi R’ Hershel Schachter advised me as follows: (emphasis is mine)

"what I said was that there never was a minhag for Ashkenazim not to eat soft matzot.  The Ramah quotes the minhag that the matzos should be thinner than an etzba ...the soft matzos are thinner just like what color you have on the poroches is not a minhag, it is a matter of taste.  Not every little sneeze is considered a minhag.  However, if a person descends from chassidishe families and they have a minhag not to eat gebrokts *unless someone should pasken for him that this is a minhag shtus or a minhag b'taus, it would not even help to make a Hatoras nidorim*.  Hatoras nidorim for a minhag only works if it is a *personal* minhag.  The baal ha'neder has to request from the beis din the ha'tora.  *If an entire community has a minhag, you have to get the entire kehilla to be matir the neder.  One member of the community cannot be matir the neder on his own*.  Just like if a person decides that he does not want to wait six hours between milchig and fleishig, he cannot be matir the neder, *he* is not the baal ha'neder.  I was told that R.Tuvia Goldstein used to say that the whole minhag against eating gebrokts only made sense years ago when the matzohs were much thicker.  The concept of dovor sh'bminyan, etc. that even if one lives in a generation when the reason for the takanah no longer applies, the takanah is still binding, only applied to takonos d'rabbonon and *does not apply to minhogim*.  The Ramah in his teshuvos writes like this and rashi in the first perek in Beitza writes the same.  If I am not mistaken, I think the very last teshuva in Achiezer volume 3 by r. chaim ozer writes the same.’

I conclude that we should be much more careful before attempting to extrapolate from Poskim of the enormous stature of Mori V’Rabbi.

Dr. Isaac Balbin
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