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Let us look at the words of the great Gaon and Tzaddik, Rabbi Zilberstein shlita, and the great Gaon and Tzaddik, one of the poskei hador, the Shevet Halevi: http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/398088/rav-yitzchak-zilberstein-says-women-should-not-drive-as-it-compromises-tzniyus.html
The wife of the Chazon Ish wore a wig.
For Sephardim – it is controversial if they can wear a wig. The opinion of Chacham Ovadia is well-known, but not everyone holds like him.
Ashkenazim have each guy in the family light his own menorah; by Sephardim only the baal habayis lights. Ashkenazim are really following the Sephardic opinion. Am I right, Joseph?
Avoiding fish and milk is also a Chabad custom.
Anything by the saintly tzaddik, HaRav Shimshon Pincus, the Nefesh Shimshon (for example, The Gates of Emuna)
Anything by the saintly tzaddik, HaRav A. Miller zatzal (for example, The Universe Testifies)Sephardim are required to keep yoshon (and generally have more stringent traditions in kashrus). While by Ashkenazim, some people are meikel to eat chodosh (although, having learned the sugya, I know that the heterim to eat chodosh are weak).
joseph – Does it have to do with Chanukah?
Sephardic ladies are required to recite 100 benedictions every day, in the opinion of Chacham Ovadia.
Ashkenazic ladies don’t have to.Selichos is a big one!
Sephardim are into kabbalah more than (non-Hasidic) Ashkenazim. Ex: Sephardim put on RT’s tefillin. In terms of nusach, there are differences.
Sephardim have to wait an extra day to cut their hair during sefira.
Sephardim are required from the letter of the law to wait 6 hours after meat. Whereas, for Ashkenazim, it is only a minhag (and some Ashkenazim have a minhag to wait 1 hour, etc.)
Some Poskim (including Harav Moshe Feinstein Zatzal in Igros Moshe ibid.) maintain that in certain instances and with the guidance of a Rav, one may switch his/her “33 days” from year to year if necessary (hataras nedarim may be necessary in order to do this), while others are stringent and maintain that one must continually follow the same minhag each year. (See Michtavim U’ma’amarim from the Gaon Harav Elazar Menachem Mann Shach Zatzal vol. 6 page 71 for the reasoning why changing would not be permitted.)
The sefer Vayoel Moshe will answer all the above questions.
Just because something is not mentioned in the Shulchan Aruch doesn’t mean that it’s not a real Halacha. The laws of lashon hara are not enumerated in the Shulchan Aruch. So lashon hara isn’t a real sin?
Even if it is only a “medrash” and not a real “Halacha,” it still reflects the ratzon Hashem – and the ratzon Hashem is that we should not have a Zionist state while we are in golus.
The vast majority of gedolim were either anti-Zionist or non-Zionist (Chofetz Chaim, Brisker Rav, Satmar Rebbe, Chazon Ish,….)
Chabad Chassidim do NOT take haircuts on any day of sefira, except erev Shavuos (and erev Shabbos which erev Shavuous is a Shabbos). This is based on the Arizal, since based on kabbalah, the days of sefiras haomer are likened to Chol Hamoed and are days of din. [Don’t ask; it’s a kabbalistic thing.] There are different customs regarding which days are the correct days, so if you want to act in a way that will satisfy all opinions, then you keep the whole sefira.
You may listen to music Chol Hamoed Pesach.
Women technically don’t have to count but many do (according to Sephardic and kabbalistic custom, women should not count).Switching sefiras is a complicated question and should only be done in a case of dire need.
If one wanted to observe Yom HaShoah in a spiritual/ Torah way, like other days of tragedy are observed according to Jewish law and tradition, he would do so by fasting on this day. But in Nissan we are not supposed to be fasting. That already shows you how the invention of Yom HaShaoh is contrary to the spirit of the Torah, as we are unable to observe this day in the way that the Torah tells us to observe days of tragedy (erev Shabbos Chukas, Tisha Bav, etc.)
The original proposal was to have Yom Hashoah on the day of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which was erev Pesach. However, this “uprising” was against the Torah, as explained at length by the Gaon Rav Miller. (Look it up.)
I personally heard from the mouth of the Gaon HaRav Leizer Ginsburg shlita (and I am paraphrasing here, but this was the gist of it) that the way to determine if someone is a ben torah (for real) is his attitude towards bein hazmanim. Is it with a sigh(Unfortunately, it will soon be bein hazmanim, and of course I have to help my family prepare for Pesach, and so on) or is it more like, “Thank G-d, it’s almost bein hazmanim. I look forward to it all year long.”
If someone needs to be mafsik his learning to save a drowning person, he must do so – and if he doesn’t, he is a murderer without question, but the guy who did not have to be mafsik did a bigger mitzvah! It’s the same idea here.
If you have bad mazel, you might open a window and a crumb of chametz will fly in and land in your food.
That’s why I don’t want to rely on your mazel and I don’t want to eat by you on Pesach.
If you have bad mazel, then maybe the matzos that you baked are for some reason not 100% kosher. That’s why I don’t want to rely on your matzos and I will bake my own, and rely on my own mazel.
(I am just saying this as an example to explain those who are machmir not to mish; I personally am not machmir at all.)
At one point, the Gaon Rav Scheinberg made a Kiddush to celebrate the fact that he no longer felt any emotion at all when hearing the fact that the Yankees won. But it took him a while to get to that point.
About the dirty car – It’s in the book that I mentioned.
The definition of mishing (as I understand it) is that you don’t eat stuff that was produced outside of your home/ without your supervision. So whether you’re eating someone else’s food or food from the store, it’s the same thing.
The idea is that when it comes to Pesach, where the ingestion of the slightest crumb of chametz involves an automatic issur d’oraysa, you don’t want to rely on anyone else. (Even though “one person is believed regarding an issur” … but Rav Pam (or it may have been a different gadol) said that to refrain from chametz on Pesach is something that is dependent on mazel (whatever that means*). When it comes to your own mazel, you have no choice but to rely on it. But why should you rely on somebody else’s mazel?
Obviously, every person has free will, but there are times when a person could eat chametz through no fault of his own. Example: There is a worker in the factory who didn’t wash his hands after lunch, and a crumb of bread fell into the food. And you had the bad fortune to buy that food and eat it during Pesach. Or let’s say you opened the window on Pesach and some crumb of chametz flew in and landed in the food. It’s not your fault; you just happened to have bad mazel.
If one goes to a chasuna, you can see right away who is makpid not to eat other people’s meat.
Rav Scheinberg was asked what one should do if he is davening SE on a plane in such a way that he is blocking something that the flight attendant needs access to, and the Rav recommended that one should point to the siddur that he is holding in his hand and she will chop that he is davening and will wait for him to finish.
The minhag of some is to buy wine and matzah, due to an inability to self-produce. Although technically you could bake your own matzah, etc.
Even if there is a mashgiach etc., nevertheless in every food factory there are workers, and these workers bring in chametz for lunch, and who knows if every single one of them washes his hands before returning to work, and if the mashgiach supervises this etc.?
What is the naf kamina?
Joseph – So these folks would never eat (anything?) by a chasuna, or by a Kiddush, and they are never guests by anybody for Shabbos and Yom Tov? And they never eat anyone else’s mishloach manos? But they do buy processed food from stores, right?
I know people who don’t eat meat outside of their home (Rav Miller zatzal, whose yartzeit is today, was such a person). But not to eat anything?
MODS: I figured you might take out that part, but it is the emes. But OK.
I do not doubt the emes and it is only due to our own levels that some information is deemed not necessary to share
The following hanhagos and customs of the Rosh Yeshiva were collected mainly from the seder A Gadol in Our Midst.
The great gaon and tzaddik Rav Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg zatzal was makpid to daven for the amud 3 times a day every day. He would cry by every tefilla (in certain parts, like when he reached the bracha of bonei Yerushalayim).
He wore (at one point) 300 pairs of tzitzis. This required tremendous mesiras nefesh and causes him yissurim (skin problems), as there was a time when his apartment had no AC and he had rashes from wearing so many layers of clothing. The number of tzitzis he wore went down due to medical reasons. At one point, a person brought him a pair of tzitzis, which (if I understand correctly) Rav Scheinberg did not have the koach to put on by himself. He literally BEGGED the person to put it on him, and said, “I will give you anything you want.” (The person was reluctant to put the tzitzis on the Rosh Yeshiva, as for medical reasons he was not supposed to be wearing so many tzitzis.)
He discouraged others from copying his minhag of wearing many pairs of tzitzis.
All of his tzitzis were the same. (The reason he wore so many tzitzis was NOT because he wanted to be mekayem the mitzvah according to all views, but because every beged is a separate mitzvah and because there are people who don’t wear them at all.)
He made a tnai that if any of his tzitzis should become possul, they should automatically become hefker. He was not concerned about them becoming possul on Shabbos, as there was an eruv where he lived. He did not check his tzitzis every day, but held that nowadays one should check tzitzis once a month.
He wore tefillin the entire day, in accordance with the opinion of the Vilna Gaon. He continued to wear his tefillin long after shkia, in accordance with the ruling of the Shulchan Aruch. On Friday, he would remove his tefillin 10 minutes before shkia.
He did not eat bread and/or meat (I believe it was both) unless it was served at a seudas mitzvah. (Even if he himself was not by the seuda, but the bread/meat was served there, then he would eat it when it was brought to him.)
He forbade smoking and told people that it causes lung cancer.
In terms of psak, he was extremely makpid that Mincha should be davened before shkia. If one could not daven Mincha before shkia on Friday, he advised such a person to be mekabel Shabbos and daven Maariv twice. He also advised to daven sitting down before shkia as opposed to standing up after shkia.
He was extremely makpid that no one should collect in his yeshiva during seder, and no one should give those who collected then (although he himself would give such a person so that he wouldn’t feel bad about not being able to collect then).
He treated goyim (who worked in his yeshiva) with respect. He rebuked (if I remember correctly, even expelled) a bachur who got into a fist-fight with a goy in the yeshiva.
He repeated the word “nihiye” when making a shehakol, as there are different opinions as to how it should be said.
When counting sefira, he said both “laomer” and “baomer,” as there are different opinions as to which is correct, and he wanted to be yotzi according to all views. [However, this word is not me’akev, and even if omitted, one is yotzi, so it is not clear to me why the Rosh Yeshiva was makpid about this.)
He permitted drinking cholov stam in America (like Rav Moshe).
He held that it was a Chillul Hashem to drive a dirty car.
He was makpid to daven vasikin (every day?)
He wore Rabbeinu Tam’s tefillin.
He would observe a taanis dibbur every Shabbos, speaking only divrei Torah, etc. but no mundane words. If he wanted to say something, he would quote a possuk from Tanach to convey what he wanted to say. [This practice the Rosh Yeshiva took on as a zechus for his sick daughter.]
He permitted folding a tallis on its creases on Shabbos. [This was a chiddush to me, as the long-standing custom of all bnei Torah is not to fold a tallis on Shabbos.]
edited
There are people who, on Pesach, don’t eat anything that was produced outside of their home (with certain limited exceptions, like some people will buy wine or matzah from the store, while others will make their own; obviously, fruits and vegetables are not a processed food, but many people are makpid to peel them prior to eating). This minhag includes both processed foods and mishing, which are the same thing – as one is eating something that was not produced under his supervision.
If you eat processed foods, then you are by defintion mishing. It is the same thing.
BH I got it right the first time.