ben: I know it’s true. I just wanted to know LF’s reason why. The simple explanation for this whole debate is that he/she assumes the Chazon Ish’s answer while others take the Rambam’s and Kessef Mishnah’s approach.
Just a point, by the way. Whenever you try claiming an unwritten Mesorah for anything, you are treading very, very dangerous waters. One of the most important parts of our Mesorah (post-Gemara) is that everything you say is verifiable-i.e. you can trace it back to the Gemara, who we believe had a direct Mesorah from Sinai. Thus, everything one says in Torah goes back to Sinai. When you claim a “Mesorah” that you can’t read into a Gemara, you are essentially claiming that you know something that the Tannaim and Amoraim didn’t choose to write down. Basically, you could make up anything and claim “Mesorah” and call out other people for not having it. That’s not the way Yiddishkeit works. In fact, it is that the exact opposite is true (that any claim that anyone makes has to be backed up in what we now have written in Torah Sheba’al Peh) that has allowed Torah and Yiddishkeit to thrive and remain unbroken even in this long Galus. You may even be right about this unwritten Mesorah. But it is a potentially lethal game to play.