[Avodah] kitniyot

[Zev Sero via Avodah]

On 21/04/17 14:23, Micha Berger via Avodah wrote:
> What the gemara says the letter read was:
>     Hizharu beminhag avoseikhem!
>     Zimnin degazru hamalkhus gezeirah, ve'asi le'ilqalqulei.
>
> This is a motive given for "hizharu". (The letter expliticly says
> so.)
>
> Yes, it could mean that it's the motive for the minhag, which is so
> strong that that justifies not only keeping it going, but being warned
> But, given that the potential oppression does not justify the format
> of the minhag, this explanation must be for the caution alone.

No, it's not the reason for the minhag in the first place; we know what 
that was, and it no longer applies. That's why they wrote to the 
Sanhedrin asking whether they should abandon it.   Hizharu means don't 
abandon it, keep it going anyway, and the reason for doing so is Zimnin 
degazru.


> : Those places never had a minhag of two days, so Chazal weren't going
> : to institute one now.
>
> Why not?

Because that would be an innovation and Zimnin degazru is not enough 
reason to do so. But it *is* enough reason to continue an already 
existing practise that has just become obsolete.  It takes a lot more to 
justify changing existing practise than it does to continue it.


> I am suggesting the problem being solved is peopole forgetting that
> qiddush hachodesh should be al pi re'iyah, and that's why practices
> from the era of al pi re'iyah were preserved.

But there's no hint of this, and the letter explicitly says otherwise.

> (In any case, Chazal were instituting a derabbanan based on a pre-existing
> minhag.

Yes, exactly.  It's a din derabanan that behaves *as if* it were a mere 
minhag, because that's what the rabbanan said it should do.


-- 
Zev Sero                May 2017, with its *nine* days of Chanukah,
zev at sero.name           be a brilliant year for us all