[Avodah] Showering During the 9 Days

[Arie Folger]

R'Alan Engel asked:
> So where, in the Rav's structure, does the minhag of refraining from meat
> and wine in the Nine Days fit in, considering that it appears only in
> aveilus for an onein, and not in shiva, sheloshim etc? Furthermore, some
> specifically recommend drinking wine during the shiva.

I heard besheim Rav Hershel Schachter that the Rov held it based on Bava
Batra 60b, and that though Rabbi Yehoshua rejected the total abstention
from meat and wine, we still do it for a few days a year.

Our Rabbis taught: When the Temple was destroyed for the second time, large
numbers in Israel became ascetics, binding themselves neither to eat meat
nor to drink wine. R. Joshua got into conversation with them and said to
them: My sons, why do you not eat meat nor drink wine?
They replied: Shall we eat flesh which used to be brought as an offering on
the altar, now that this altar is in abeyance? Shall we drink wine which
used to be poured as a libation on the altar, but now no longer?
He said to them: If that is so, we should not eat bread either, because the
meal offerings have ceased.
They said: [That is so, and] we can manage with fruit. We should not eat
fruit either,
[he said,] because there is no longer an offering of firstfruits.
Then we can manage with other fruits [they said].
But, [he said,] we should not drink water, because there is no longer any
ceremony of the pouring of water.
To this they could find no answer, so he said to them: My sons, come and
listen
to me. Not to mourn at all is impossible, because the blow has fallen. To
mourn overmuch is also impossible, because we do not impose on the
community a hardship which the majority cannot endure,
...
It has been taught: R. Ishmael ben Elisha said: Since the day of the
destruction of the Temple we should by rights bind ourselves not to eat
meat nor drink wine, only we do not lay a hardship on the community unless
the majority can endure
it.

Shenizkeh lirot benechamat Tzion,
-- 
Arie Folger,
Visit my blog at http://rabbifolger.net/

<http://rabbifolger.net/2016/01/28/wir-missionieren-nicht-aber-warum-nicht/>
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