[Avodah] Birchat Cohanim

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Oct 31, 2024 at 02:10:32PM +1100, isaac--- via Avodah wrote:
> On 31 Oct 2024, at 1:12PM, R' Micha Berger wrote:
> > 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
> 
> Except that the Alter Rebbe tried exactly the same thing as the Gra
> and faced similar real world push back incidents which made him also
> reconsider and forget about trying to reinstate Duchening each day...

Why "except"? So the Gra was being told to stick to Minhag Yisrael and not
innovate based on halachic theory, and the Baal haTanya was told to stick
to Minhag Yisrael rather than innovate based on Qabbalah and Chassidus's
attitude toward simechah.

The message would be similar enough to stand up to my generalization.

>            I've always understood the happenings of the Gra and Shulchan
> Aruch HoRav to be Hashem's way of saying "Well, you think that in Chul
> your Simcha is on par with someone in EY. No, it's not. I've give you
> signs that it is not". Indeed, Lo BaShomayim Hi, but...

In the stories, they didn't in the end actually follow "lo bashamayim
hee". What were taken as signs mishamayim motivated dropping the
innovation.

Also, the Gra didn't actually argue based on simchah. He did his usual,
"This is what the talmuds pasqen, it's shitas haRambam and in the Chinuch,
why aren't we doing it?" A very technical argument founded in halachic
process. (See how it is recorded in Hilkhos haGra uMinhagav, pg 124.
The original story can be found in Aliyot Eliyahu, ed. 5749, pp. 57-58,
in the name of RCV.)


As for when the custom took hold... I found something odd.

Maharam miRutenberg (Teshuvot u-Piskei Maharam pg 32) writes about a
kohein baal qeri going to the miqvah before duchanen as though this
was a daily matter. Roughly: Just as the geonim say it's good although
optional to do so before learning, a kohein all the more so because he
has to duchen.

But the Beis Ephraim (shu"t OC #6) says the custom dates back to the
Maharam miRutenburg.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 The thought of happiness that comes from outside
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   the person, brings him sadness. But realizing
Author: Widen Your Tent      the value of one's will and the freedom brought
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF    by uplifting its, brings great joy. - R' Kook