I have VERY much enjoyed following this thread and I will add my opinion too…
Firstly, I am of pure yekke lineage, but was brought up more litvish as is usual in todays world.
The “malzeit” minhag is actually a shortened version of “gezaigtne malzeit” (or something like that) which basically translates to “until the next meal”, something more understandable as a sign-off after a meal.
Dear Rabbiofberlin, yet again you have found your kindred spirits or twin brothers as you continue to insist that daas Torah is non-existent. We have been through this line before and you too admitted then (as Cantoresq has in this thread too) that you envy the belief of the true believers in daas Torah. Your assertion that this is a new phenomana in Am Yisroel is ludicrous. Of course there are no seforim written with all the daas Torah of previous generations as unlike Halacha which is fixed, daas Torah changes with every slight variation in the story and even if not, what may be correct for one generation is not necessarily true for another time. However, look at all the Kol Koreh’s that the Chofetz Chaim wrote (as printed in Ma’amorim Umichtovim Mibaal HaChofetz Chaim) for an idea of what was usual in yesteryear. Perhaps the Gedolim’s fight against translating the Torah into German by Mendelsohn was also meddling in your opinion as there is no issur or halachic issues involved (even Artscroll do it nowadays!). Well maybe had you lived then and had your opinions then too, you may have turned out a reform rabbi (of Berlin too). The need to write down daas Torah for the future is unnecessary and even dangerous and therefore was not done in previous generations but that does not mean that clal Yisroel didnt follow daas Torah nor that the Gedolim didnt involve themselves in non-halachic issues.
As we have mentioned before, if you would only use equal levels of your intelligence to try to understand the holy words of our Gedolim as you seem to use to try to belittle and refute them, your life would improve dramatically!!
I wish all of us the fulfillment of the words of the Novi “????? ???? ??? ?? ???”.