Reactions to My Hypothesis re: S'fira

Originally published 7/31/11, 1:47 pm.
It was interesting to observe the various reactions to my hypothesis of  "s'fira as quasi hol hamoed."

Some "Right Wingers" (?) seemed to pick up [correctly] that this would lead to kullot re: music, etc.

What Left Wingers seem to miss was a chance to attack this by saying: If 49 days are a quasi hol hamoed then weddings and haircuts should be assur for the entire 49 days - instead of only 33!?

Ein hachi nami. My sheetah comes down l'kulla on some aspects and l'humra on others!

"How about that!" - Mel Allen

This is somewhat akin to RYDS Z"L who was lenient on some forms of music during s'fira and strict on attending a baseball game!

RMF Z"L was also at times meikil at times Machmir.. YBL"Ch R J Weiss, my Y"D rebbe dismissed poskim as falling into either category categorically. [I'm not sure I concur 100% of the time, nevertheless that IS often the case]


"Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest..." - Paul Simon

I frequently find that many reactions often filter via a pre-conceived lens w/o realizing that a given sheetah may not be humra or kula, just different, etc.

Story 1
One Friday Night I visited a choveir who is no meikil, nevertheless he was quite open-minded to my hypothesis. Besides the Ramban, he said that the P'sikta takes this approach. I later saw it in the YU publication on that topic.

True Some Poskim DO tend to be meikil or machmir, but others are "eclectic" and still others may be "all over the place". - as a friend privately described himself to me
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Story 2
One town had 2 Orthodox shuls.
A with a high mechitzah
B with "3-way" seating

Yet the Rabbi of A opened his parking lot on Shabbos, while the Rabbi of B locked his up!

And, to an extent, EACH Rabbi thought he was "frummer"

Shalom,
RRW