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

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, May 11, 2023 at 07:14:59PM +0000, Prof. L. Levine via Avodah wrote:
> From
> https://ohr.edu/this_week/insights_into_halacha/5879

>> And there are different minhagim. In fact, Rav Moshe Feinstein
>> zt"l 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]

R Akiva Miller made a list of shitos on Mail-Jewish back in 1995
<http://www.ottmall.com/mj_ht_arch/v19/mj_v19i39.html#CMH>

I went through his sources and made my own version due to minor
differences in understanding (and his listing the third shitah in the
Biur Halakhah, even though the BH gives it as a hypotehetic al says
lemaaseh no one does it).

That's at <https://aspaqlaria.aishdas.org/2008/05/30/mourning-during-omer-2>.
I ended up listing some 11 shitos that various acharonim said are followed
in practice.

But I concluded in terms of the more popular minhagim:
> The two most common minhagim are probably
> - #3 for Ashkenazim or #4 for Sepharadim (which differ over Lag ba/laOmer)
>  and
>- either #10 or #11 (which only differ by whether one mourns the day of
>  Erev Shavuos).

Back to Ohr Samyach's Insights into Halacha by R Yehudah Spitz
>> 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'...

Except that the IM says you indeed can, to fulfil Mesameiach Chasan
veKalah by attending a wedding, or if family would be offended, etc...
So I think that the she'as hadeachaq (or whatever you want to call it)
piece of his pesaq needs to be phrased as something more includsive thatn
"except under extremely extenuating circumstances".

(Notably Yom haAtzma'ut is during the overlap between the two.)

In the prequel to that part 2 blog post, I try to make a case from the
AhS (OC 493:1-2) that these minhagim were born at different times.

Se'if 1 discusses two tragic events -- the death of Rabbi Aqiva's
students and the Crusades. One presumably happened during "First
Sefirah". Thus linking Rabbi Aqiva starting over again with 5 special
talmidim -- of of whom was Rabbi Shim'on -- with Lag baOmer.

The 2nd notes that the minhag original minhag was not to have haircuts
or weddings. And this is what Sepharadim still do during "First
Sefirah". Historically, it was until Lag laOmer (as the SA calls it) ad
ve'ad bikhlal, but with the popularization of the idea of Yom Simchas
Rashb"i and the belief that it's his hilulah, velo ad bikhlal became
more common.

Then "bekan", meaning Ashkenazim (or East Europeans?) we are nohagim
a broader range of mourning practices.

I think the AhS is intentionally implying that this deepening of the
aveilus was because of the Crusades. Thus, after the mihag hage'onim
and specifically among Ashkenazim. And the Crusades hit Metz, Speyer
and Worms during "Second Sefirah". The first Crusade reached the
Rhineland on 8 Iyyar 1096 CE.

So, if an Ashkenazi is following the norm not listening to music during
the Omer, it would seem to me to be more consistent if they were keeping
Second Sefirah.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Today is the 35th day, which is
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   5 weeks in/toward the omer.
Author: Widen Your Tent      Malchus sheb'Hod: What is soul-like about
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF                submission, and how is it glorious?