Guest Post: Humrot Are Destroying Authentic Tradition

As we plough through yet another year of Ashkenazi humrot and the self-denial of not touching corn, rice, pulses and apparently, now also quinoa, it is worth reflecting that not all humrot are accomplished in the doing. Some are even achieved by abstaining from a mitzvah – and some even have ancoent Ashkenazim and Ashkenazic traditions as their target.

 

Hol Hamoed Tefilin – The State of Orthodoxy in Microcosm
A guest post by Phil

As we plough through yet another year of Ashkenazi humrot and the self-denial of not touching corn, rice, pulses and apparently, now also quinoa, it is worth reflecting that not all humrot are accomplished in the doing. Some are even achieved by abstaining from a mitzvah – and some even have Ashkenazim and Ashkenazic traditions as their target.

Humrot sometimes have a special illogicality all of their own, building fence upon fence around mitzvot so that the original intention ends up so fenced-in that we no longer see what the original intention was. Hence, sesame seeds, hence peanuts, hence oil derivatives of kitniot and the famous quinoa – so not European and so not remotedly close to a biological definition of kitniot. Over a century ago, someone tried to ban potatoes in Poland and nearly got away with it but for the local community who refused to turn the joyous liberation of Pesach into the hurban of Tisha Be’Av.

By far the worst manifestation of the kitniot cult however has been the move among some Sephardim – thinking that it makes them frummer – to abandon their centuries-old tradition and halacha and to cease eating rice or kitniot on Pesach. A clear example of frumkeit based on tradition trumping tradition based on halacha.

Many of us, European Jews of today and yesterday, will well remember the days when the absolute norm and practice of Ashkenazi Jews was to don tefilin on the intermediate days -  Hol Hamoed – of Pesach and Succot, removing them either just before Hallel or even earlier, after the kedusha of shacharit. Our forefathers had always donned tefilin, following centuries of practice well founded upon normative halacha and equally importantly, of logic. Gradually though, and eating away at our long-held practice, we can see more and more people choosing no longer to wear tefilin on Hol Hamoed on the erroneous and dangerous “frummer than thou” principle so sadly endemic to today’s Judaism. On that ebbing away of this normative Ashkenazi practice, more later, but for the time being, let’s look at some sources.

Firstly, the source of sources, the Torah. In the Book of Leviticus (Vayikra, Parshat Emor) which deals with the practical, rather than the cultic or agricultural nature of the Jewish festivals, and which we read in the synagogue on the second days of Pesach and Succot, there is a clear description of the sabbatical nature of the first and last days of the two festivals, namely, that all manner of work is forbidden. No reference whatsoever is made to the intermediate days and certainly, it is illogical to inference that the Torah intended Hol Hamoed as a non-work semi yomtov. In fact, there is no question that non-working humrot as applied to Hol Hamoed are later rabbinic innovations and not from the Torah itself.

How do we know that Hol Hamoed wasn’t a day for shtreimels and fancy bekishers, of people taking a full seven – or eight day break from work? Well, we know it directly from the section in Parshat Emor which falls between the sections telling us about the festivals of Pesach and Succot. Because at the heart of the Pesach festival is the annual barley harvest and on the day after first day yomtov, (mimahorat hashabbat) the barley harvest continued and the first omer was cut. Jews of the time were out in the fields harvesting barley and as anybody familiar with the agricultural cycle of Israel is well aware, those who weren’t growing barley were certainly growing other things at this time of year and you can bet that they were also out in the fields. Hol Hamoed was a work day at full pelt – all the more so since they had lost time over yomtov itself and the preparations for Pesach. (They were also playing around with barley and probably wheat as well right in the middle of Pesach but that’s another discussion.) In short, Hol Hamoed wasn’t holiday time, it was high velocity round the clock getting the harvest in.

Those familiar with the prohibition of using new grain (hadash) will know that the halacha takes the 17/18th of Nissan as the cut off point from new to old. Jews were evidently harvesting grain on the 17th and 18th of Nissan – on Hol Hamoed. 

There is a legitimate argument largely among the rishonim based on discussions in the Talmud of what constitutes an ot, a sign, of yomtov. Without over-complicating this, not eating hametz or benching lulav and etrog could or could not be interpreted as an ot meaning that the necessity for another ot – donning tefilin – would or would not be necessary. Since both those mitzvoth are performed on Hol Hamoed, if you accept those as ot, then there should not be tefilin donned on Hol Hamoed. Another ot though is not working, observing a holiday for religious purposes, and we have seen that Jews in the Land of Israel for thousands of years did clearly work on Hol Hamoed.         

Our normative halacha comes from later sources, principally, the work of Rabbi Yosef Caro in the Shulchan Aruch and its Askenazic embellishment, the Remor, Rabbi Moshe Isserles of Krakow in Poland. The two works were written largely simultaneously, the former authoritative for Sephardim and the latter for Ashkenazim. One of the principal differences in the two works is that Caro is heavily influenced by Kabbalistic thinking and it imparts on his halachic reasoning. Isserles is greatly influenced by his surroundings. He is bound not just by what the Jews should do but also by what the Jews actually practically do.

Isserles was well aware that Jews were working on Hol Hamoed and that it wasn’t yomtov and his view is that his Jews – the Ashkenazim – should don tefilin on Hol Hamoed with the proviso that they should either not recite the bracha or say it quietly out of respect for those rishonim and Talmudic sources who held the opposite view. From the views of most Ashkenazic acharonim who followed him, putting on tefilin on Hol Hamoed was normative practice. It is clearly the view of the Mishne Brura. If your great grandfather wasn’t hassidic or Sefardi, you can bet he put on tefilin on Hol Hamoed. And indeed, a generation ago, you’d be hard-pressed to find a non-Hassidic Ashkenazi synagogue in the US or Europe where tefilin wearing was not the absolute norm on Hol Hamoed – before, of course, most of the congregation headed off to work.

So where does the other tradition come from among some Ashkenazim to not put on tefilin? Primarily, it comes from the hassidic tradition which uses as its base the kabbalistic view of G-d donning different parts of the tefilin at different times and the need to copy/compensate for this behaviour on Hol Hamoed. One proto-hassidic source suggests that putting on tefilin on Hol Hamoed is even punishable by death, a view slammed by the Italian halachist Luzatto as completely ridiculous and positively dangerous. The same kabbalistic source is also the basis of the practice in Israel where tefilin are almost universally not worn on Hol Hamoed even among Ashkenazim. Most minhagim for Ashkenazim (minhag eretz yisrael) were instituted by disciples of the Vilna Gaon in the 18th century. There is a mistaken view that the Gaon strongly rejected the learning of Kabalah which was his principal objection to the Hassidim. In fact, the Gaon was a great kabalist himself and his objection to the hassidim was that they chose to diffuse the kabalah to the masses (often without the necessary background or mitzvah observance of those to whom it was being diffused.) His select band of disciples who made it to Eretz Yisrael were also kabbalists and carried on his practice of not wearing tefilin. The Gaon however, never tried to institute the practice in his own community. Vilna Jews wore tefilin on Hol Hamoed.

Today though, a rejection of donning tefilin on Hol Hamoed is reflective of something far removed from Halacha. As Orthodox synagogues in the Diaspora strive to get frummer and frummer, so Hol Hamoed becomes almost yomtov and rabbis frown upon those who work – as generations of Jews did and as the Torah recognised and even instructed. Studying full-time has also become the norm among many groups of hareidim with work an accepted necessity rather than a holy act. Sheshet Yamim Taaseh Melacha is also part of the Torah. Perversely, those studying at kollelim don’t study on Hol Hamoed, it’s general holiday time. So off come the tefilin.

And as many Orthodox congregations take on Chabad rabbis, one of the first minhagim of the shul that goes is the tefilin. The rabbi refuses to wear them, his BT disciples follow him and those who don tefilin on Hol Hamoed are perceived as less frum.

But to be part of a full society requires work and interacting with others, both frowned upon by   
Hareidi society. For those fortunate to work in certain professions, and I am one of them, it is not difficult to take off for two days yomtov. Moreover, it is what our forefathers have done for generations and centuries. It is part of our tradition and Pesach is more than anything the continuing of the chain down the generations linking us with our past to guarantee our future as Jews.

I and many other Modern Orthodox Jews may question the two-day yomtov and the non-eating of kitniot but it is an authentic part of our tradition and it is the way we have always done Pesach. But there is a way we have always done Hol Hamoed as well and it too is an authentic part of our tradition. It too is special but it is not yomtov. If the practice continues of trying to make Hol Hamoed yomtov, all yomim tovim will be less accessible to most Jews and we will all be the losers.

A Gut Moed (not yomtov)

Comments

[moshy]

its clear in all poskim reshonim and achronim that working on chol hamoed is strickly forbidden look in tur or shulchan aruch look in the mishneh in avos saying do not shame the festivals and rashi says it means chol hamoed

[Alan]

Thank you for this very stimulating thought piece. "But to be part of a full society requires work and interacting with others, both frowned upon by
Hareidi society." Hareidi society is doomed as long as they believe that they hold all the moral cards and are not subject to examination or questions inside themselves as to whether what they are doing is right or wrong. Look at the numbers of their leaders who without regret march off to jail having broken laws of decency in the United States. They have no clue what a hillul Hashem it is and how empty they look to the outside world. On top of that, you don't have one voice in the community asking whether something wrong was done. Their biggest mistake is they have become the law, they have become the authority. How pathetic that the Modern Orthodox commmunity feels so insufficient next to them.

[R Aron]

You can't draw upon the traditions of Biblical (Tenaach) times.

They knew nothing about Succos, their Korbonos were not in agreement with the Torah. King Solomon Feasted on Yom Kippur without even mentioning the name Yom Kippur. Many got married to Moavites without mentioning that there might be a problem. The Kohanim gave King David to eat from the Lechem Haponim, although he was not a Kohen.

Even Yecheskel writes things which are completely different then the Torah.

They knew nothing about the Torah, because they only found the Torah hidden somewhere in the Bais Hamikdosh, approx fifty years before the Chorban.

[jay]

@Moshy: then you shouldn't be on the internet on chol hamoed either.

[phil]

Reb Aron,

We are not talking about melachim here or nach, we are talking about the chamisha humshei torah.

The one that is currently getting you to count sefirah because the Torah COMMANDS Jews to go out into the fields and harvest the barley straight after yomtov on hol hamoed. The barley is clearly ready. Ask a farmer whether he stops a harvest for eight days having just started it.

And the mishnah and gomorrah which enforces that. Someone who believes that Jews didn't work in the fields on Hol Hamoed - Pesach or Succos including DURING THE TIME OF THE SECOND BEIS HAMIKDASH, doesn't understand anything about agriculture or the Land of Israel.

Let me give you an example. The korban pesach was offered on the afternoon before yomtov. From that point until yomtov, all work was prohibited as in fact it is today halachically from hatzot erev yomtov. That's a very strict prohibition. Yet in spite of that, certain specific work, according to the Mishnah, was allowed - for example, pollinating female date flowers. Date flowers need pollinating as soon as possible after opening. The rabbis of the mishna knew that you weren't allowed to pollinate on yomtov. Hence the need to pollinate as much as possible as close to yomtov. Now, they'd gone round the open flowers the previous day but missing newly opened flowers for two and a half days would have resulted in considerably less dates come sukkos time. So you need another go during peak season just before yomtov.

Do you seriously expect me to believe then that they would then prevent them being pollinated for the next eight days? Clearly, they went out on hol hamoed.

Same goes for the barley.

[jancsipista]

mosgy- not everybody has the luxury of not working on halemod you think that in a nonjewish world or land like america all jews have it as good as you, most probably youre on sec.8 food stamps who knows what else di shoite fool that you are.

[jancsipista]

moshy- not everybody has the luxury of not working on halemod you think that in a nonjewish world or land like america all jews have it as good as you, most probably youre on sec.8 food stamps who knows what else di shoite fool that you are.

[ah-pee-chorus]

very nice post, phil.

[skeptical]

This is totally ridiculous and reflects the continuing low level of this blog. The Zohar clearly states that a person should not put on tefillin on hol hamoed. The Zohar is (a) not a new thing at this point and (b) reflects even older traditions. The time to have this discussion is not now but maybe in the 13th century or something. Religions evolve and now we are after the Zohar and there are going to be Jews who do not wear tefillin on Hol Hamoed. Get over it. Also; Hassidim were NOT the first to engage in Kabbalistic minhagim. There were kloizen and nusach sefard before there was Israel Baal Shem (cf Glen Dynner, Men of Silk) and there was LOTS of Lurianic practice before the advent of Hassidism with the besht and maggid (cf Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi). There were plenty of proto Kabbalistic minhagim in ASHKENAZ (cf Elazar of Worms) and in Italy (cf Rekanati) before the Zohar. Really, please stop with your shrillness and idiocy and open a book. If you have a clever vort about the date harvest, you can either (1) be a mensch and read the voluminous literature on biblical agriculture or (2) more likely tell over your boich sevarahs to your friends with a shot of slivovitz and some kugel as is appropriate to the intellectual level on display here. Gut moed.

[Yechiel]

Skeptical:
Dittos

[seymour]

In fact, there is no question that non-working humrot as applied to Hol Hamoed are later rabbinic innovations and not from the Torah itself.

what a profound statement, Not

99.999999999% of what we do and we we believe it not mentioned in the Torah.

For example not eating milk and meat, never mentioned not even close. It says 3 times do not cook calf with the milk of its mother why because g-f new some morons would make it harder and harder on Jews so he said it 3 times to be very clear about it, only in these case, and still the rabbies screwed it up or,

Schichata not mention

and those two are what everybody agrees on and still no mention in the torah

all we do is rabbinic innovations, or really inventions

[Dave]

Seymour, I agree with you. In fact, I checked out the Karaite websites. The thing is that all though they are "frummer" than Conservative and Reform, they also have their own version of halacha, plus the fact that in Karaite Judaism, most/ many people have to be serious talmidei hachamim, or the Karaite system falls apart. Nowadays it probably will work because of the internet.
Also their calendar is slightly different than the rabbinic calendar, and the idea of fasting on a different day for Yom Kippur kind of bothers me and I don't feel like fasting on two Yom Kippurim which could fall 3 days apart in some years, so I'm not planning to become a Karaite, but they do have a lot of good ideas, which I hope to incorporate within my own observance, where possible.

[A E ANDERSON]

I would not have picked phylacteries on the Intermediate Days of Passover as the ideal issue upon which to attack the haredim on the proliferation of humras.

The problem that it highlights is another, namely that of triumphalist Chabad substituting their customs for the local ones as they "inherit" underpopulated synagogues.

The fact of the matter is that the late Rebbe was careful to instruct his devotees not to change the local customs of synagogues which they served as rabbis. Indeed, many older Lubavitcher rabbis who have led non-Chabad congregations for decades, have been careful in this regard, preserving the local nuschaot and minhagim, and even praying from the non-Chabad siddur while performing their rabbinic duties.

The Rebbe (who I distinguish from the imparied "messianic" figure of his dotage) was a major advocate of preserving local kehillah customs whenever there was reason to ask him. This mandate filtered down even to yeshiva bachurim on "mivtsoyim," and there was a time, in the remote past, when some "Mitzvah Tanks" would have available tefilin in Ashkenaz format.

Remember that much in Chabad is done off the cuff, at the last minute, ad hoc, with no opportunity for the kind of policy and planning sessions that would feature in outreach activity performed by anybody else.

[Shlomo]

Maybe not putting on tefillin is becoming more popular simply because in itself it is a kula it is easier not to put them on if you don't have to.

[seymour]

Seymour, I agree with you. In fact, I checked out the Karaite websites. The thing is that all though they are "frummer" than Conservative and Reform, they also have their own version of halacha, plus the fact that in Karaite Judaism, most/ many people have to be serious talmidei hachamim, or the Karaite system falls apart. Nowadays it probably will work because of the internet.
Also their calendar is slightly different than the rabbinic calendar, and the idea of fasting on a different day for Yom Kippur kind of bothers me and I don't feel like fasting on two Yom Kippurim which could fall 3 days apart in some years, so I'm not planning to become a Karaite, but they do have a lot of good ideas, which I hope to incorporate within my own observance, where possible.

Posted by: Dave | April 22, 2011 at 07:54 PM

i always wanted to but never did but finally did go to their web site.

Strangely I am somewhat drawn (but not really) to them.

When I went to a Black hat yeshiva I would ask and ask again the rebbies how many of the things they say are in the torah are simply not there. And the way they try to convince me that it is there , I told them I could do the same to any Cheerios Box if i try hard enough. Also I used gematria to show that it is a mizvha to have a tv in every house., i did that to show them that if one is willing to to stretch things long enough as they do one can come up with anything.

So rabbinate Judaism is out. and of course the Karaite questions that they ask of the mishna is an old one that not one rebbie has even remotely answered me yet

And so is theirs. Simply, I see not proof and the evidence on the ground it that the whole is made up a story a nice story. Whether written as a novel like harry Potter and then misused as a religious writing or maybe written as a writing to be used by people how to act to your fellow man or run a society, simply it was written by human not G-d.

therefore is not holy at all.

However, if I could be convinced that g-d did write it, i will become a Karaite since i am convinced that this is the way our ancient forefathers practiced Judaism and not the farce we have today

Karaite ny anybody surprised it is not around

[Dave]

Seymour, as far as I know there are 2 Karaite synagogues in the U.S.- one is in upstate New York- it's called Orah Saddiqim, and the other one is south of San Fransisco.
By the way, from what I've read on their websites, Karaites DO believe in Torah mi'Sinai and they also believe the Nach is holy/ divinely inspired. So they're not exactly Reform or Conservative, to put it mildly.

[seymour]

Dave,

they are orthodox as far as I can see since they believe that Nach as you say that is was divinely given and that since it is the word of god it cannot be changed.

They are more likely practicing real Orthodox Judaism in its originals form.

Lets get real if god wanted you not to eat milk and meat all he had to do is write it. The mere fact that he did not, seems to disprove the rabbinate interpretations.
also teffilian the explanation is pretty far fetched. and of course the only place that it is said that the oral law are like the written law, is from the oral law.

I guess the rabbinate never heard of the criticism of a circular argument

That is just for starters, I used to ask these type of questions in Yeshiva and never really got an answer, but got kicked out of class many times

[Gevezener Chusid]

the fact is that at least in America, the vast vast majority of Jews who put on tefillin every day ARE from Hassidic families, unless they are ba'alei tshuvah. Those Ashkenazim (and Sephardim for that matter) who came to America before 1924 do not, for the most part, have religious descendants. When a person becomes a ba'al tshuva, there is perhaps a question as to whether he should adopt the minhagim that his ancestors abandoned or the minhagim of the community that he joins as a B.T.

What one may or may not do on chol hamoed is delineated quite clearly in Halacha - if one is not going to lose out by refraining from work, he should not work. That is not a chumra. Some of us are not so fortunate as to have that option, so we work.

[seymour]

Those Ashkenazim (and Sephardim for that matter) who came to America before 1924 do not, for the most part, have religious descendants.

what are you talking about and where do you get that information or misinformation

[the usual chaim]

this is the most idiotic post. who cares? so people dont wear tefillin on hol hamoed. if i was a father and had a different tradition i would care that my son did differently, but it is so not an issue worth complaining about by the larger community. chumra proliferation is a symptom, not a cause. focus on the causes or you'll never get anywhere

[Abracadabra]

Phil - I liked your article very much.

I didn't know that working on Chol Hamoed was a necessity in Biblical times. Very cool.

And I agree with you on the chumros. It's nutso. But it's fueled by social stigmatization - everybody's doin' it, doin' it, doin' it...

[moshy]

sukkot is 7 days it says in the torah basukot teishvy shivat yamim and pesach is 7 days it says seven days thou shal eat matza and no im not in section 8 i dont even live in america

[Dave]

Seymour, thanks.
You make some good points.

[Dovy]

>I would not have picked phylacteries on the Intermediate Days of Passover as the ideal issue upon which to attack the haredim on the proliferation of humras.<

I also don't get the author's point here. I really look forward to Chal HaMoed since I don't have to put on tefillin. It feels like A BREATH OF FRESH AIR!! Why in the world would anyone be compalining about that -- except for the chumra-obsessed frummies???