Reply To: Feminism

;;;;;;”For example; while the Rambam said that a man can divorce a woman if she doesn’ wash his feet, I have stressed that in these times no Rabbi would agree that a man should divorce his wife because of that reason.”;;;;;;;

Should and ‘could’ have very different meanings and can make ALL the difference when talking about halacha.

If someone “shouldn’t”, that does not automatically mean, they are forbidden by halacha, from doing it.

And from this it does not sound like the Rambam was making it Assur.

;;;;;;;”There are numerous such instances that halacha, while unchanging, is clearly applied differently than years ago”.;;;;;;

If it is unchanging then what is the point of trying to imply that it DID, change?

;;;;;;;”I will bring a different example as well. According to halacha a man is allowed to have more than one wife. While cherem d’Rabbeinu Gershum was adopted it there never was an outright halacha ossuring a man from having multiple wives. In fact in Teiman, until very recently men had more than one wife. Why did that change? More specificly why did the Taimany adopt the practice of only marrying one wife if the cherem d’Rabbeini Gershem was never adopted as their minhag? Simply put, halacha does not change, but minhag hamokom changes the way we apply halacha.”:::::

This one, I happen to remember having learned about, and the above statement I (strongly) believe, is not correct.

This change was already IN the origional Halacha, because the Halacha states that a man may have ONLY as many wives as he can take care of to their satisfaction (not an exact quote but the basic halacha as I understand it).

So, if the Sages have decided, that these days, men in general, can NOT take care of more then one wife, Al Pi Halacha; Therefore they have said that no man may have more then one wife.

In other words, the Halacha and the application are still exactly as they were, origionally.

;;;;;;”The accepted APPLICATION of halacha can change(not halacha itself, but the application of it)to a stricter or more lenient practice – that’s called minhugim.”:::::::

I have yet to see any minhag that the SAGES accept and approve of that is more lenient then Halacha.

;;;;;;;;”Sorry, but minhugim do exist and they can sometimes clearly clash with halacha.”:::::::

Sure; Some people have the minhag to drive on Shabbos and eat treif and that clearly clashes with Halacha.

;;;;;;”An example of such a case would be where some families eat a kasieos afikomin after chatzos which is clearly against halacha.”;;;;

Then they are obviously doing wrong just like those who eat treif.

If it is ‘against’ Halacha then it is by definition, wrong.

If kosher rabbonim pasken that it is not wrong then by definition it is NOT against Halacha.

;;;;;;;”Kasha, while in theory your arguments are strong, it is not the reality.”;;;;;;;;

Actually that is not proven, by the above statements, as I have shown.