[Avodah] Gartel (was Is it permissible to eat while walking outside through a marketplace?

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Jan 03, 2021 at 08:31:30AM -0500, Prof. Levine wrote:
> I recall hearing a story about Rav Schwab and a Chosid.  The Chosid took off
> his tie and used it as a gartel for davening....

Yes, it could be that dressing fit for a melekh when speaking to the Melekh
Malkhei hamlakhim is more important than putting on a gartel if you are
already wearing a belt.

Not really relevant to whether one should wear a gartel when there is no
such trade-off.

> I doubt that men in LIta wore gartels based on what the AhS said.  After
> all, in Minhagei Lita the author wrote that  no one in Lita wore their
> tzitzis out,  not even the Chofetz Chaim, even though the MB says one should
> wear them out.

Mah inyan shemitah eitzel Har Sinai? The MB and AhS are very different
books. One of the more spoken about differences is that the MB is a
survey of acharonim who post-date the standardized SA page. The MB
therefore leans toward clean-slate theory. He doesn't give much weight
to centuries of accepted practice. So, the MB could say something about
wearing tzitzis out that no one did.

(Also, because he tells you the book is a survey of later sefarim,
there is no reason to believe he expected people to follow his seifer
lemaaseh. And thus it is less surprising that the CC himself didn't
always follow what was written there.)

The AhS is famous for finding how accepted practice is theoretically
sound. (When possible, of course.) If some hold a gartel is necessary
and some not, so that both sides are sound pesaqim, the AhS will almost
always side with whatever is being done.

Thus, the AhS's pesaq is evidence of what Litvaks held, whereas the
MB's pesaq isn't. It's a methodology difference between the two works
discussed on-list repeatedly.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 The goal isn't to live forever,
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   the goal is to create so mething that will.
Author: Widen Your Tent
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF