[Avodah] RSZA on kitniyot

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Fri, Apr 07, 2017 at 10:29:56AM +0300, Eli Turkel via Avodah wrote:
: from halichot shlomo volume on Pesach p89 (pe-tet)
...
: RSZA says the minhag is not to use cottonseed oil on Pesach (mimetic - who
: determines this minhag?)

Well, if it's mimetic, you just watch what people do. And if so, RSZA's
statement is descriptive, not descriptive. As in: Lemaaseh, people are
nohagim not to use cottonseed oil on Pesach.

: He brings that the CA prohibited potatos !! but that this psak was never
: accepted. because they can't be confused with wheat...

But the CA himself says it's a minhag she'ein hataibur yachol laaemod
bo. He gives it as a hava amina and rejects it for a different reason
than the one given.

...
: Certainly, cakes made from matza flour should certainly be prohibited (ie
: even according to those that eat gebrochs) (yesh ladun behem - Pesachim 40b
: - Rashi that when people are "mezalzel one should be machmir)

Who is being mezalzel on chameitz? If he saying that because some people
are questioning qitniyos, we should strengthen qitniyos, then what does
that have to do with foods not already under that umbrella?

And even among those who question the minhag's sanity, is there really
a major zilzul going on among Ashkenazim doing less and less to avoid
qitniyios? On the contrary, as your translation opens, avoiding shemen
qitniyos has spread well beyond the communities that originally had that
minhag, to the extent that it's being applied to foods that in the past
weren't on the list of qitniyos! The questioning is a counter-reaction
to the growth of the minhag. Who is being mezalzel?

: In the notes that this was what RSZA said in shiurim and when asked a
: question responded that one should follow the family minhag...

Ascerting mimeticism over his own textualism. Sevara aside, minhag
is whatever is the accepted practice.

:-)||ii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 5th day
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