well, I have a few minutes today so I will continue on the thread of ‘chumros” and ‘kullos” and respond to dovidjehuda and others.
Joseph, give me a bit of time and I will quote you plenty of passages that deal with loving every jew. BTW- gavra at work -what you quote is a gemoro in berochos ,first perek.
dovid jehuda quotes chanukkah- and he proves my point. chanukkah is the ONLY mitzvah that all people do now as the “mehadrin min hamehadrin”. There are philosophical reasons for that on which i will elaborate some other time.
In al lother mitzvos, there is a basic mitzvah and the “hiddur’ is just that- a hiddur. EVEN on the hiddur ,the halocho has limitations such as not more than a fifth extra…etc.
The plain fact is that throughout history and all the halachic permutations, it was always incumbent to find ways to be LENIENT for the KLAL.
The machlokes of the eiruv in Boro Park is the example how far we have strayed from this in recent years. Many,many kehillos have always used Kullos for an eiruv and it was accepted for the klal.In Boro Park, the severity of the machlokes is the sad result of a new apporach today.I can add the question of agunos, geirim and others.
Bais hillel should be our example and, sadly, it is not what many of today’s Rabbonim do.
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