[Avodah] yirei shomaim

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, May 10, 2022 at 11:37:22PM -0400, Joel Rich via Avodah wrote:
> A Bar-Ilan search showed less than fifteen times that the Shulchan Aruch
> used the phrase yirei shomaim in the context of taking action to be yotzei
> more than one opinion. It would be interesting to tally how many times this
> approach was used in S"A vs. M"B vs. AH"...


As for the SA, you have to look at other idioms, like YD 113:3 "baal nefesh
raui lehachmir", 114:1 "baal nefesh tzarikh laasos lo harchaqah tefei".

Benjamin Brown ("Soft Stringency in the Mishnah Brurah"
<https://www.academia.edu/4966640>) has these statistics for such chumeros
in the MB.
    - Yeish / tov / raui lehachmir: 458 times
    - ... lachush: 223
    - ... lizaheir / lehizaheir: 104
    - ... limnoa' / lehimana: 36
    - Yarei Shamayim yir'eh (or another verb) lehachmir: 35
    - Ba'al Nefesh yachmir: 24

The MB uses these terms 885 times. The SA -- 104. The AhS - 274 times.

But... The AhS also has cases where he gives the sevara for a chumera
and argues for it as an alternative. As though he is saying "I found
this convincing, if you do too, go for it." It's more specific than a
general "anyone ought" or "someone striving for yir'as Shamayim or to
master their nefesh should..."

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Today is the 32nd day, which is
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   4 weeks and 4 days in/toward the omer.
Author: Widen Your Tent      Netzach sheb'Hod: What type of submission
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF               really results in dominating others?