Reply To: Minhag Shopping

yekke2

I am actually on the fence about this. The nessiim thing just struck me as starnge, its not like I made a “mechaah” and said “NO! if its not your minhag don’t say it!”

There are a few things bothering me bout the idea of shopping for minhagim

1) It erodes the idea of mesora and minhagim. If everybody does what everybody does because it seems nice, there goes mesora. (I could hear this as being a good thing it is easy to argue the idea of ” Lo sa’asu agudos agudos” but personally I think mesora trumps that)

2) Some minhagim are problamatic for one reason or another. You mentioned kapporas. It can not be argued that Kapporas as practiced today in 2015 urban environemnts does not involve an element of Tzar bal hachaim. If it is your minhag/mesora then (arguably) that trumps Tzar bal hachaim (or you can argue it creates a “Tzorech” thus making it not assur) But if it is NOT your mesora and you are stam trucking chickens into a hot enclosed urban enviroment deprived of water then twirling it around your head, just because it is geshmak, well that seem s wrong. Others such as shlissel Chalah which MAY have questionable mekoros, if your parents did it. By all means keep doing it. If not then why adopt a (arguably) questionable minhag?

The reason I am on the fence is point #1 above could be argued as a positive. and #2 only applies to some minhagim and invariably people will dispute the “questionableness” of the source or the “problem” involved in the minhag