Sunday 16 August 2009

SA + RYDS - Chol Hamoed and Shaving

Two Halachot seem innocent enough - yet subjected to closer scrutiny may trigger some questions


1) SA 531:1 it is a mitzva to shave erev Yom Tov

Q: What kind of Mitzva is this?

What's its source?

(Be'er Hagolah says it is "pashut" I.E. Implicit in Moed Qatan 14.

Is SA exceeding his authority to state this as a "mitzva"? After all there is no explicit positive act of legislation!


How would this Mitzva be construed if R JB Soloveichik [RYDS] or Rabbi Herschel Schachter had declared this a "mitzva"?


2) 531:2 one may not shave on Chol Hamoed EVEN if one shaved before YT started

Source: Be'er Hagolah 531:2 Tur, Hagahot Ashrei besheim Or Zarua, and "remaining posqim

I am told that RYDS disputed this and suggested shaving if one shaves regularly and has complied with se'if 1 and shaved before Yom Tov


Q: Has RYDS exceeded his Halachic authority by revising Halachah codified by SA based upon a consensus of Posqim


OR


Is RYDS within his authority in that no dispositive statement in Talmud prohibits this case - and what is NOT prohibited explicitly by Talmud is...

Ergo permitted?


KT

RRW

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