What’s new with Chodosh II – Is there room for leniency?

Thanks for the sefer – a wonderful sefira companion – it has enhanced my sefira. CGK

Please pass on to Mr. Lichtenstein: Your volume is magnificent; a treasure. It is a volume of the soul.

Sincerely and thank you,

Yitzchak Kasnett

author:

Reb Chatzkel

The World That Was, Volumes I-III: Lithuania, Poland, Hungary/Romania

(ArtScroll/Mesorah)

I heard your question asking why people are lenient, although the whole heter is only bedieved.

I respectfully ask that Reb Moshe’s heter for Chalav Akum is also only bedieved, so why don’t you ask the same question by Chalav Akum?

While I respect him and admire the passion you have with regard to the re-implementation of the laws of Chadash; I think you’re assertion that a rabbi should not be trusted because they do not observe Chadash In accordance with ‏״כל בעל נפש יחמור״ when for hundreds of years this was not observed, and granted the circumstances are different in terms of ״בשעת הדחק״

If it so clear as you posit that in a situation where it’s not an inconvenience to observe Yashan that it is a potential violation of d’oiraisa, why would someone like Reb Moshe come out and say clearly that in theses situations it’s no longer an issue of
‏״כל בעל נפש יחמור”
rather it is a non-negotiable Mitzvah that must be observed. Period full stop.

Lastly, if your position is correct, I can understand in a situation where it was life and death you suspend, and you find permits, but there were many times in Europe over the last 500 years where it was not a life and death situation. It may have been inconvenient, but since when do we suspend a clearcut biblical prohibition because something is difficult or inconvenient yet we never find that the rabbis came out and adjusted their opinion based on changing circumstances related to how the Jewish people procured their flower, wheat and bread.

When we selectively overreact and cherry pick stringencies in Jewish law, it creates unnecessary fodder for the skeptics

Respectfully

Eli

Rabbi Kornfield נרך יאיר ויזרח לעד

Thank you for your comments. I had a number of question about yiurbketter that I’d like to clarify.

Where is the Reb Moshe you’re referring to?

I’ve seen two dozen tshuvis written over an 700 year period that state it was a שעת הדחק. Why do you assume that you were three years of time that it wasn’t?

Dovid Lichtenstein