Doubting the wisdom of Chazal

I don't normally comment on op-eds, as everyone is entitled to their opinion. One type of op-ed I really don't like is the kind of op-ed in which the author is being "judgey" and maybe even holier than thou.

Dov Eichler, a Haredi journalist, has written an op-ed in Behadrei.

Eichler writes a strongly worded piece about a deception that is not uncommon during the Nine Days. A deception in which people find all sorts of siyyumim to hear so that they can be allowed to eat meat during the Nine Days.

Eichler references a restaurant in Boro Park that pays a rotation of avreichim to come in every half an hour and make a siyyum so that they can continue to have customers during the Nine Days and sell and serve meals as regular.

Eichler calls it a deception. He calls it making a joke of halacha. He calls it acting as if you are smarter than Chazal. Eichler's final two paragraphs are particularly strong in which he says he is not lecturing to anyone, but expressing disdain at this "combina" - this shady deal or deceptive practice. "If you must eat meat during these Nine Days despite them being categorized as national days of mourning, go ahead and eat. I am not coming to educate you, just don't make a joke of a hetter, don't make halacha into a joke... I am not a posek halacha or a talmid chochom, but I am also not an idiot. Sometimes something makes me think that we doubt the wisdom of Chazal. If we would only lie to them and to ourselves, nu, ok. But to doubt their wisdom? woe to the shame!"

I personally agree with his approach. Not his approach in talking about those who use the siyyumim to eat meat, but his approach in not looking for ways out of the Nine Days. It is just nine days, one or two of which is Shabbos anyways, and I can handle not having meat and wine for these days. The purpose is to make us think about the destruction of the mikdash, and I don't think nine days is asking so much of us.

As the Aruch Hashulchan says, members of other religions take off far longer periods of abstaining from various pleasures for their religions; Lent and Ramadan come to mind. The Aruch Hashulchan exhorts us to give these few days to show our minimal sacrifice for remembering the destruction of the Temple and not looks for ways out of it, even ways mandated in halacha.

Where I don't agree with him is in his criticism and scorn of people who take a different approach. If he were a community leader of some sort looking to exhort his community to changing its approach, that would be acceptable, I think. In the meantime, the people who look for the siyyumim, whether they hear them on the radio or in a restaurant on some sort of regular schedule, are at least following halacha as the Rama writes it - at a siyyum and seudas mitzva one is allowed to eat meant, though during "the week of", which does not apply this year, a siyyum should only have a basic minyan of people and not extras.

So, Chazal allowed it. And Chazal being pretty smart knew that people could use it to find ways to eat meat and "get out of the mourning" yet they did not put in limits and qualifications. And, without doubting the wisdom of Chazal, maybe they did so because they wanted to offer people a way out, for people who feel they need it. Since halachically it is ok to eat meat and it was Chazal who added it as a custom to adhere to, perhaps they also chose to leave it open enough to allow people a way out.

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