[Avodah] Mistaken Minhagim
Micha Berger
micha at aishdas.org
Sun Mar 1 13:31:37 PST 2020
On Mon, Feb 24, 2020 at 02:58:18PM -0500, Micha Berger wrote:
> Which gets us back to "mistaken minhagim"... We use minhag to mean
> a- pesaqim specific to a community
> b- practices following knowing they're lifnim mishuras hadin
> c- ... anything else?
RMPoppers mentioned the example of East Europeans not wearing a tallis
until marriage.
Which I think has the probable origin of sheer finances. Easier to make it
a gift from the in-laws when everyone is breaking the bank anyway. Yes,
it can be justified after the fact -- there is no hypocracy implied
when saying Shema without a tallis on in a community where everyone has
a tallis qatan. And even meaning can be assigned to the practice based
on a semichut between tzitzis and marriage in Devarim 22. But that's
all post facto.
And that in turn reminded me that Purim costumes, for all the post-facto
meaning assigned to them did just happen to start in Italy, a country
where the local Notzrim were just celebrating Carnivale. Or milchig
on Shavuos coming from Germany, a country where the locals celebrate
Wittesmontag (White Monday) the Monday before the Notzri Pentacost.
So there is a (c) for my list
c- Common practices picked up by the masses for which the rabbinate
later found ways to assign meaning. These aren't lifnim mishuras
hadin (category a), but are -- after the explanations -- meaningful
experiences in a Torah sense other than the purely halachic.
Anyone have a suggestion for (d)?
Tir'u baTov!
-Micha
--
Micha Berger The mind is a wonderful organ
http://www.aishdas.org/asp for justifying decisions
Author: Widen Your Tent the heart already reached.
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF
More information about the Avodah
mailing list