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<p>In Avodah Digest V26#15, RKB replied to me:<br>
>> ...Not only is it a relatively-recent phenomenon that many take for granted nowadays, but it's downright improper (e.g. see BH 17:4, quoted in MB 17:10, as well as MhSh ad loc.) in an era when most parents can afford to buy taleisim for their sons (and do purchase talisei qatan for those sons even years prior to age 13 mishum chinuch). <<<br>
> The source for this minhag is the Maharil, darshening the juxtaposition of "Gedilim ta'aseh l'cha" (Devarim 22:12) with "ki yikach ish ishah" (Devarm 22:13). If that's recent, then I'd be hard pressed to find an Ashkenazi minhag that isn't recent. <<br>
If the matter was that simple, one might understand what many Ostjuden do despite the response of BH 17:4 and of MhSh on MA 17:3 to which I previously alluded (also, in general re this issue, let me mention MA 8:3, quoting BT Qidushin 29b [the implication is that a young man should also wear a talis gadol prior to marriage but not cover his head w/ it <even if he's a talmid chachamim> until he's married], even if BH considers that point "eino muchrach"), but the matter is not that simple. In this particular case, AIUI, a sh'eila to MaHaRYL (Hilchos Nisuin -- see bottom of page at <a href="http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=8918&pgnum=129">http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=8918&pgnum=129</a>) indeed noted that young men in the shoeil's community didn't wear taleisim until their marriage, but MaHaRYL didn't per se agree w/ that custom (he did "go w/ the flow" of that shoeil's custom, as pos'qim have always done, and he did tell the shoeil that the latter had not acted properly in being misateif lichvod haregel [chag haShavuos] instead of waiting 'til the chas'nah...and NB that BH 17:4 is careful to mention what was "written in d'rashos MaHaRYL" and what "sam'chu *lahem*" but doesn't say that MaHaRYL sanctioned the custom); the custom apparently spread across much of Europe not because of that shoeil's community's custom (or its recording by talmidei MaHaRYL) but much later, perhaps when m'qubalim suggested, based on BT Y'vamos 62b's "kal adam sheain lo ishah," that young men prior to marriage don't have a sufficient level of simcha for atifas talis. <br>
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All the best from<br>
--Michael Poppers via RIM pager</body></html>