Interesting Psak: wearing gold jewelry on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur

There is a minhag that women do not wear gold jewelry on Yom Kippur. Personally I never was aware of it until after I was married. In more recent years it seems to have spread to also men removing any gold jewelry (usually a watch, sometimes a ring) and also to Rosh Hashana.

the supposed reason for this custom is to not raise the memory of the Golden Calf on the day we stand in judgement. Presumably wearing gold jewelry would cause God to remember the sin of the Golden Calf.

Personally I do not believe in "new" minhagim so I wear my watch on Yom Kippur (and Rosh Hashana), in addition to the practical reasons to wear it (i.e. to tell the time, and I have no other watch - during the week I use my cellphone or other digital contraptions for telling time).

Someone asked Rav Bentzion Mutsafi about wearing a watch on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur with a silver strap that has gold stripes on it.

Rav Mutsafi responded that both men and women can wear gold jewelry on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur and there is absolutely no source for the minhag to not wear such jewelry. Only the kohen gadol would remove his gold jewelry and garments when he went into the kodesh kodashim on Yom Kippur. nobody else needs to remove anything. Rav Mutsafi exhorts the questioner, and I guess everyone else, to not make up things from their imagination.
source: Kikar

as an aside, Rav Mutsafi also criticized another new custom.

While everyone talks about going to Uman for Rosh Hashana, there is also a custom, common in Breslav among those who do not go to Uman along with some other people, to spend Rosh Hashana by the grave of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai in Meron, also often leaving one's family behind.

I first learned of this custom a few years ago when a friend went with a hassidic rebbe with whom he was close.

Rav Mutsafi said one should preferably daven calmly and peacefully in a shul close to home and eat is meals at home with his family.

New customs all around. None of them are real. People can make up whatever they want and whatever makes them feel good and fulfilled - but it does not mean you have to follow suit.

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