“and an implication that one is never allowed to not follow his father’s minhag, even in the OP’s case.”
“That is a strange conclusion to draw, as I was careful to point out that there are exceptions.” –
Since it was said in response to the OP’s comment, that is the logical conclusion. If you weren’t referring to him, you should have said so clearly. You wrote in parenthesis (barring extenuating circumstances), but you did not say that this was referring to his case. Putting in parenthesis particularly made it sound like it was NOT referring to this case, as was the term “extenuating” (
“Did you think I meant if a persons father had a minhag of avoda zara he should continue following “Minhag avosihem beyedeihem”?”
That was clearly NOT the situation here. That would be a good example of your “extenuating circumstances” which does not seem to refer to the case at hand (certainly not, if that is your example of “extenuating”).
“L’maaseh, I don’t have a definite opinion on the topic, ”
Nu, so dont comment, there is no law that says you have to comment on every thread particularly if you dont have a “defenite opinion”
You are taking my words out of context. In the context in which that sentence was said, it was clear that I meant that I don’t have a definite opinion regarding when a person should or should not follow their families’ minhag. This is because I don’t think I have a right to have a definite opinion, since it is not something that is a black-and-white halacha (to the best of my knowledge).
“What I do have a definite opinion on is the fact that the OP should not be criticized for not following his father’s minhagim and that is what I commented on.
“(except for this post in which you downplay keeping mesora, (though granted it is all relative)”I was surprised that the idea of changing minhagim was so controversial. …If a family has a very strong mesora, I guess that changing it would be a big deal. But I think that a lot of families don’t…” )””
I wouldn’t call that downplaying mesorah. Again, I don’t think it’s necessarily a problem for someone to not follow their father’s mesorah, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t respect mesorah.
The fact that I think the OP should not be criticized and that I was surprised by the responses to him does not meant that I don’t respect mesorah.
“I’m also surprised you didnt have the OP follow daas Torah which is usually one of your go to comments”
Not always. I might have done so if either: a) he had been asking us if he is doing the right thing halachically, or b) I thought he was doing something assur.