Charlie Hall “”our gedolim of today made it HALCHA!”
That is not true. They can establish new minhagim that might be binding for their own communities but no single rabbi has the power to actually change halachah in our times.”
Very true, and that is the point I was trying to make. Thank you Charlie! It is crucial to know the difference between halacha and minhag. I was very concerned, HGG, about the fact that you think this is halacha yet you stated that you don’t keep it. If it really were halacha, not keeping it would NOT be an option.
That statement illustrated to me the dangers of misrepresenting minhagim as halacha. When someone thinks that all of the minhagim or hiddurim are halachos, they feel that they can’t keep all of it, so they develop a lax attitude to halacha since they think it’s impossible to keep everything.
If they would know which things are clear-cut black & white halachos, they would realize that even if they aren’t yet up to keeping all of the minhagim, it is not so hard to keep all the halachos (while gradually working on the minhagim/hidurim). They would realize what a serious thing it is to not keep an actual halacha and they would never think of saying the words, “it’s halacha, but I don’t keep it.”
Tznius is more complicated as I pointed out, but there still are things that are black & white halachos handed down from Chazal and written in the Shulchan Aruch and things that are not.