[Avodah] Dancing Around A Bonfire & Concern of Foreign Practices: Rav Wosner’s Responsum

[Zev Sero]

On 02/05/18 12:04, Micha Berger via Avodah wrote:
> To my mind, what's more problematic is ending omer mourning before Lag
> baOmer morning. The SA has you wait for haircuts until 34 laOmer (493:2)
> and the Rama cites the Maharil and minhag on the 33rd "umarbim bo qetzas
> simchah, but explicitly writes, "ve'ein lehistapeir ad La"G be'atzmo
> velo miba'erev". With exceptions for cutting before Shabbos rather than
> waiting for Sunday and for berisim, lekhavos haMilah. In se'if 3, the
> Rama excludes the night of Lag baOmer for people who mourn on the last
> days too.
> 
> And you need part of the 33rd day too, so that with miqtzas hayom kekulo
> you have 33 days. The SA haRav (the only Chassidic code of halakhah I
> have access to) agrees in 493:5 -- "aval laylah, afilu kulah, einah
> kekhol hayom".
> 
> At some point a minhag originated to end the aveilus at tzeis. (And I
> know it's at tzeis and not sheqi'ah because my nephew's wedding scheduled
> later than the norm, this evening.)
> 
> I don't know the origin.

The origin is with the shift in the significance of the day from the end 
of mourning for R Akiva's students to the celebration of Rashbi's happy 
day, the day of his "wedding", when he revealed the Idra Zuta and 
returned to his Maker.

A cessation of mourning, such as the last day of shiva, obviously begins 
in the morning. Nor is it an occasion for joy; when one gets up from 
shiva one doesn't go dancing and singing.  Thus the restrictions are 
lifted only after daybreak, and tachanun is said at mincha on the 
previous day, just as it is on the other three days whose observance 
begins in the morning, viz Pesach Sheni, Erev Rosh Hashana, and Erev Yom 
Kippur.

But the celebration of Rashbi is a positively happy occasion, so it 
starts immediately at nightfall, and no tachanun is said at the previous 
mincha.

The first edition of SA Harav, and especially Hilchos Pesach, which is 
the first section he wrote, follows nigleh, not nistar, and relies 
heavily on the Magen Avraham.  (He later expressed regret over his 
over-reliance on the MA, which is one reason why he wrote a second 
edition, only a few chapters of which are extant.)  So it's not 
surprising that this is the psak found there, however it is not the psak 
that was followed in Chabad, which means in practice he paskened 
differently.  (Sometimes it means he changed his mind, but sometimes he 
never paskened in practice as he wrote in the SA, for the reasons I 
mentioned above.)

-- 
Zev Sero            A prosperous and healthy 2018 to all
zev at sero.name       Seek Jerusalem's peace; may all who love you prosper