I have no intention of getting involved in the larger discussion of notpashut,SJSinNYC and others about leadershop in Klal yisroel. Too intense a subject and,at the end, everyone is right. But ,perusing over the (rather lengthy) posting by notpashut, I have to partially disagree with him on the matter of chumros and what to do when faced by such a dilemna.
BTW,I actually saw R”Shlomo Zalman’s zz’l psak on bottle tops ( I think it is brought down in Shemiras shabbbos kehilchoso). I have not seen the psak that notpashut claims he has heard from, yibodel lechaim tovim,Rav Elyashiv.Please elucidate and bring us the actual source,ESPECIALLY the fact that he says it is de’oraisa.
Be it what it may, to follow a chumro is,as he writes- for someone who wants FOR HIMSELF, to be machmir.Whether he wants to be a yirei shomaim or he wants to be joizeh lechol hadeos, a person ,individually, is entitled to do whatever he wnats and to be mekabel any chumro he wants.
HOWEVER, all this changes when you deal with the “tsibbur”. Then, as a matter of fact, you are NOT allowed to be machmir if you have the possibility of a kulloh. This is the whole essence of “koach dehetaira odif”. This is fully apparent in all sections of Shulchan aruch. Whether dealing with agunos (Even ho’ezer), or a eiruv on shabbos (Ohr hachaim) or with a question of kashrus when there is a hefsed merubah (joreh deah)or with questions of money where we say “jachloku’ or a similar compromise, (choshen mishpat). It is the duty of a possek to find the kulloh and to make life easier for the Klal.It is NOT the duty of a Possek to find a chumro.
Please peruse through any sefer of “shaalos uteshuvos” and you will find this approach respected. Sure ,there are cases when a possek feels he cannot find a kulloh but even then, he may advise the questioner to find someone else who will be able to Pasken ‘lekulloh”.
So, in the case of bottle tops, notpashut HIMSELF can decide he wnats to follow Rav Elyashiv. However, for the Klal, it is fully acceptable to follow R”Shlomo Zalman zz.l
Similarly ,his example of a sandwich and netilas yodaim. Of course, if you want to be machmir, you don’t eat the sandwich now. However, if the halocho allows you to eat it now (and it does) ,then the Klal can do it without any feelings of guilt whatsoever.
i don’t want to retread old postings but this is what should have been accepted (for example) about the eiruv in Boro park. Every individual can do what he thinks is right for him. For the klal, however, the eiruv should be valid.
In the larger picture, the so-called Modern orthodox crowd is entitled to follow the kullos of Poskim, because this is the halocho. The chareidim are entitled to be more machmir- but this cannot be a demand on the klal.
BTW- in answer to a correction of an earlier poster- for hiddur mitzvah we have to spend up to a THIRD more,as he wrote,from gemoro baba kama 9. When I wrote ‘up to a fifth’ , it was a reference to “al jevazvez odom joiser mhechomesh”. A man should never spend more than a fifth of his wealth on zeddakah (Kesubos 50). I thank the poster for his correction.