[Avodah] Switching Sefirahs? Understanding Your Minhag and its Ramification

[Prof. L. Levine]

From

https://ohr.edu/this_week/insights_into_halacha/5879


Your neighbor is planning on making a wedding on Rosh Chodesh Sivan, while a colleague did so the day after Lag B’Omer (not that he could have done it the day before even if he would have wanted; the halls were all booked on Lag B’Omer itself months in advance). Yet, a friend insists that one must wait until after Shavuos, while another bemoans that he should have made the wedding right after Pesach. Who is correct? Welcome to the annual Sefirah scenario.


The Gemara Yevamos (62b) famously and tragically details the deaths of 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva during the time period between Pesach and Shavuos, all for not according each other proper honor. Although there are many different rationales given by the commentaries to explain this catastrophe, the Tashbetz (Shu”t vol. 1: 178) elucidates that the reason they were punished so severely for a seemingly minor infraction is that their not treating each other properly ended up engendering a tremendous ChilulHashem. In fact, according to several authorities, the reason why LagB’Omer is a day of celebration is that it is the day when Rabbi Akiva started teaching his five new students (including Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai), allowing the Torah’smesorah to perpetuate;[1]<https://ohr.edu/5879#_edn1> a feat that was previously in jeopardy after the deaths of his talmidim.


This calamity is actually the basis of the annual Sefirah restrictions, which include not getting married or taking a haircut.[2]<https://ohr.edu/5879#_edn2> Yet, that does not properly explain the different and varied minhagim that Klal Yisrael keeps regarding the actual time frames of these restrictions.


And there are different minhagim. In fact, Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l[3]<https://ohr.edu/5879#_edn3> lists six different customs, and that is not including the Arizal’s minhag. Yet, practically, the Pri Megadim and Mishnah Berurah break it down to three main disparate customs.[4]<https://ohr.edu/5879#_edn4> The others are variations on those main opinions.

<Snip>
Minhag # 3 - Second Sefirah

The Rema then mentions another popular minhag, to only start the Sefirah restrictions from RoshChodeshIyar, and not from right after Pesach. This Sefirah lasts until shortly before Shavuos,[9]<https://ohr.edu/5879#_edn9> excluding LagB’Omer itself. This has come to be known colloquially as ‘SecondSefirah’.


<Snip>


Additionally, Rav Moshe holds that the ‘Second Sefirah’ is the true Ashkenazic minhag and that ‘First Sefirah’ is essentially a Sefardic minhaa He therefore concludes that an Ashkenazi may not switch from ‘Second Sefirah’ to the ‘First Sefirah’, as ‘lechatchilla we should not be lenient against the shittah of the Gr”a, except under extremely extenuating circumstances’, but rather only between two different versions of ‘Ashkenazic Sefirah’, in different years, both of which end in different days in Sivan (see Postscript).


See the above URL for much more.


Professor Yitzchok Levine

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