[Avodah] Birchat Cohanim

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Oct 20, 2024 at 10:40:18PM +0300, Joel Rich via Avodah wrote:
> Interesting new book: The Priceless Treasure of Bircas Kohanim by Naftali
> Weinberger. (Full disclosure -- R' Weinberger's father is a friend). On page
> 153 he recounts the efforts of the GRA and R Chaim Volozhin to reinstitute
> daily duchening in ashkenaz and the seeming divine intervention (jail and
> fire in the bet medrash) that were taken as a sign to stop them...

One could have taken this far broader:

The Gra's and RCV's motive was fundamentally based on the relative weights
the Gra gives sevara and accepted practice / mimeticism / minhag Yisrael.
If the Gra had (e.g.) the AhS's attitude, he would have been more motivated
to find reasoning and sources that would explain how centuries of rabbanim
allowed the common practice to continue and to spread.

The apparent Siyata diShmaya may have not been just about limiting the
times of Duchaning in Chu"L to Yom Tov (qua "yemei simchah"). It may have
been an attempt to push Litvaks away from this attitude toward text-theory
vs practice.

But then, lo bashamyim hee.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Be happy not because everything is good,
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   but because you can see the good side
Author: Widen Your Tent      of everything.
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF