[Avodah] Arukh haShulchan and Halachic Process

[Chana Luntz]

RJR asks:

<<Where does "not a custom" as in:

In contrast look at the Yerushalmi Pesachim perek 4 halacha 1 which has a
whole list of things that people were doing, and it goes through going
"custom" "not a custom", "custom", "not a custom

Fit into:

It seems to me from that essay and some of the other rishonim that you end
up with a topology of minhagim that is threefold:

a)      A minhag chashuv - an important custom;

b)      A minhag [garua] - a [lesser] custom; and

c)      A minhag taus - a mistaken custom, which is sometimes called, even
more strongly, a minhag shtus>>

Category c), a minhag taus.  That is how the Meiri understands this
Yerushalmi - explaining that a custom that, inter alia, is one derived from
excessive piety is a minhag taus, and uses this Yerushalmi's "not a custom"
as an illustration.  As opposed to the ones that either "are a custom" in
the Yerushalmi, or the ones that the Rabbonim tolerated in the Bavli (eg
where Rabban Gamliel got off the non-Jewish bench that the people of the
town of Akko were accustomed not to sit on on Shabbas (Bavli Pesachim 51a).

KT
Joel Rich

Regards

Chana