We Must Unlearn What We Have Learned

To paraphrase Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back, "We must unlearn what we have learned." We have all been raised with misconceptions about what is halacha and what is minhag, what is a mitzvah d'Oraisa and what is a chumra. And I think this is conclusion I've been headed toward since I began this blog last year; it is a conclusion toward which I will continue to head as I continue posting about these issues.

Many of the practices we follow today are minhag or chumras. Among them, to name a few, are glatt, second day Yom Tov, Kitniyos, and how long we keep between meat and dairy. Some of these issues are subjective as to how one should hold, but rabbanim today are afraid of banding together and saying we need change. I understand that the Chareidi world would never change what came before, and that's their choice. But for the rest of the Jewish world, with certain changes, we might even be able to bring people who have strayed from Yiddishkeit out of frustration back to the fold.

I think rabbinic leaders in the Modern Orthodox and Centrist camps need to stop being afraid of what groups to the right of them will say if the rabbinic leaders or the Modern Orthodox and Centrist camps certain rules, especially ones that are minhagim or chumras. Certain of these things would not even involve getting rid of minhagim that have been in place for hundreds of years, like having non-glatt kosher meat with a good hechsher on the market.

Someone said to me in a comment on Rabbi Maryles' blog, haemtza.blogspot.com, that for people like me there is Hebrew National. The truth is, if Hebrew National had an OU, OK, or other reliable hechsher on it, I would eat it, happily! From what I've heard, they make really good stuff. Someone from Chicago told me that Best's Kosher lost its CRC hechsher because the CRC began insisting that any meat to which they give a hechsher MUST be glatt, and Best's Kosher refused to capitulate! Is this a reason to punish someone, just because they don't want to take on a chumra that will incur higher production costs and thus cause the price of their products to jump in price as well?

In a dialogue I've had with a rav, his response to me was that we just don't have the authority to change what Chazal put in place, but I cannot accept this. Not because I don't believe Chazal knew what was best for their generation and perhaps a few generations down the line from them. Certainly they did. But I don't think they knew what be good for people living two thousand years after they had all died. I truly believe they would have made different decisions had they lived in our times. I truly believe second day of Yom Tov would not have even been a suggestion or an idea in their minds with the technology we have today and I think it was real Chutzpah to force people in Golus to continue to keep second day Yom Tov once the calendar was set. The truth is, even those living in Eretz Yisrael at the time and all the down to today are also in Golus and will continue to be in Golus until Moshiach arrives. Why shouldn't they keep two days' Yom Tov if they are using the same calendar as us?!

Obviously, the course Orthodox Judaism has been wrong, especially since the emancipation of European Jewry nearly three hundred years ago. Otherwise, we wouldn't be in a situation where about 98% of Jews are not shomrei Torah U'Mitzvos. The time for change has come and it's time for rabbis to stop being afraid of standing up and executing the changes needed. And anyone who wants to bring up the Slippery Slope idea, well, so far, the most slippery slope of all has been the rigidity and lack of taking initiative to make the changes necessary to retain and help Yiddishkeit grow.

Hashem gave us the guidelines in Torah She'B'Ksav in the form of 613 Mitzvos. Many have been added by Rabanan to create Gedarim necessary for their times. We were empowered to make Halacha and make changes when necessary. Chazal did so when they changed the system the Nevi'im had in place and the Nevi'im changed the system the Shoftim had in place. Some of these changes were disastrous, and some were not. I believe, with careful consideration and the intention of making changes L'Sheim Shamayim, that the "Slippery Slope" can be avoided and even reversed.

Am I an Apikores? That's for you, the reader to decide. I don't believe I am. I believe I'm trying to be practical and create an atmosphere of Ki Karov Eilecha, as I've mentioned in earlier posts.