[Avodah] Arukh haShulchan and Halachic Process

[Chana Luntz]

I wrote:
> 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....

And RMS replied:

<<Related is the chamor who follows the chumeros of both Beis Shammai and
Beis Hillel. A similar mistake.>>

I don't think that is really the same as that is specifically about
poskening, this is about customs (although I agree they are related, as
following the poskening of your local Rav seems to be about minhag).  It
seems more to be considering it a mistake to take an attitude that if a bit
extra is good, a lot extra must be better.  So that if it is good to add a
bit of kodesh onto chol, then it is even better to add a lot of kodesh onto
chol.  

<<The Meiri, if we're talking about the same quote, is only referring to
minhagim that have no maqor. A personal minhag that does have a maqor
requires hataras nedarim.>>

Two responses to this: a) Yes, although here he is talking about communal
minhagim, not personal ones.  But agreed he says they need some sort of
maqor - and if ain bo shoresh v'lo ta'am then they are merely mistaken and
should be uprooted.  That seems to be the definition of what I have called
minhag [garua], ie ones with some sort of maqor, even though it is deemed a
lesser form of minhag than following the Rav in your local place.

b) regarding personal minhagim  there are two opinions brought in the
Shulchan Aruch Yoreh Deah hilchot Nedarim siman 214 Si’if 1, but the key
seems to be whether or not the person knew that it was being done as a
custom, or thought that it was being done because halacha mandated it, even
if there is a maqor.  One opinion is that if the person did not know it was
a custom, and thought it was halacha, the person does not need hataras
nedarim, and the second is that he does.  And Rema suggests "the custom" is
that we follow the first opinion. 

And it seems to me that when the Rema is using custom in this last comment
- he is using it in the form of "following the Rav in your local place" - ie
minhag chashuv.  And that when the Aruch haShulchan refers, in your earlier
piece, to the authority of the Shulchan Aruch, I tend to agree that this is
about the Rav's authority having been established.  Ie just as the
inhabitants of Rabbi Yossi's town could eat chicken and milk, and that was a
minhag chashuv, so it is a minhag chashuv to follow the authority of the
Shulchan Aruch.

Although fascinatingly the Rema in his introduction to his comments on the
Shulchan Aruch, assumes that following the custom, which is what he says
inter alia his comments are to bring (but not exclusively this as  I said in
my post on Street Minyanim/sh'as hadchak ), is only for those people who do
not have the capacity to Halachically reason for themselves:

ומי שיש לו חיך לטעום יבחין המטעמים בטעמיהון בעצמו ולא יסמוך על אחרים, ומי
שלא הגיע למדרגה זו לא יזוז מן המנהג,

"and one who has the ability to engage in halachic reasoning will discern
the reasons by himself, and he will not rely on others, and one who has not
reached this level will not move from the custom"

>-Micha

Regards

Chana