Kitzur SA
Advantages
• Single author
• More than just Orach Hayyim
• Many different editions and commentaries
• Widespread Acceptance
• Easy to Finish - may be completed in a single year
Disadvantages
• Has a local perspective on many issues
• Not written for scholars
• Does not teach skills in Analysis or P'saq
Mishnah Brurah
Advantages
• Also widespread acceptance
• Many authors on the page
• Robust source notes [Be'er Hagolah and. Shaar Hatizyyun]
• Broad spectrum of opinions
• Analysis in Bei'ur Halachah
Disadvantages
• It's long to complete
• Difficult to cover all commentaries on the Page
• Oriented to the Litvisher Mussar School
• Orach Hayyim only
As to the issue of Humra, most codes tend to simplify and therefore tend to be machmir. It goes with the territory of simplification that they err on the side of caution
Shalom
RRW
2 comments:
I don't know why you think there is any connection between the MB and mussar.
Promoting the MB between the campaign of those students of Slabodka who left Mussar behind. R' Aharon Kotler first omitted Mussar from Lakewood's curriculum and then accepted the MB. And I actually think the two are linked.
A major lacking in QSA is how he addresses hilkhos Shabbos or kashrus. He limits himself to pragmatic cases rather than all the details of complex topics. R' Ganzfried's world is very different than ours, and he ends up not covering the problems that actually come up today.
-micha
An example: The gemara concludes and we pasqen (Rambam, Rosh, SA, Rama, etc...) that we answer someone's greeting when we are greeted between the paragraphs of Shema. (A strong statement about interpersonal mitzvos when you think that answering "amein" to "Oheiv amo Yisrael" is debatable, but this wasn't.)
The MB limits this pesaq to answering people who wouldn't understand the importance of Shema and would take offense. Would that fit Rav Yisrael Salnter's mold?
-micha
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