[Avodah] Mistaken Minhagim?

Micha Berger micha at aishdas.org
Thu Feb 6 12:33:33 PST 2020


On Wed, Feb 05, 2020 at 03:14:50AM +0000, Rich, Joel via Avodah wrote:
> In a recent piece on Torah Musings R'Gil Student wrote about R'C Pilaggi
> mentioning minhagim which were incorrect but the Rabbis were unable to
> stop them. Does anyone know the earliest example of such? This is an issue
> I wonder about since we often seem to say that minhagim should continue
> since "obviously" earlier Rabbis approved them and the communities were
> all holy)

There are at least two ways you can ascribe importance to mimetic
precedent, whether minhag or accepted pesaq, or any other of the looser
usages of the word "minhag":

1- "Im lo neviim heim benei neviim heim" or "she'reis Yisrael lo ya'asu
avla" mean that there is siyata diShmaya involved in what Jews end up
doing. And thus Retzon haBorei blesses such practices. (In some way that
doesn't violate lo bashamayim hi. Just as a poseiq's siyata diShmaya
doesn't.)

2- The lack of rabbinic objection shows that generations of rabbanim
found textual support for the practice. Which would rule out practices
where we have a record of rabbinic protests.

I brought up #2 in the early days of Avodah, when R/Dr Meir Shinnar used
a mimetic argument to prove that sei'ar be'ishah ervah is das Yehudis
and changes with the fashion.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 "Someday I will do it." - is self-deceptive. 
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   "I want to do it." - is weak. 
Author: Widen Your Tent      "I am doing it." - that is the right way.
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF                 - Reb Menachem Mendel of Kotzk


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