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May 5, 2020
Interesting Psak: tearing kriya at the Kotel after lockdown released
A result of the recent lockdown is an interesting question.
For the past nearly two months, people have not been able to go to the Kotel to daven. The Kotel was closed to the general public. Even if you could get to the Old City, which you couldn't, they would not let you into the Kotel area. People are asking if they need to tear their shirts, tear "kriya", when going now, after being unable to go for such a long period?
Rav Elazar Stern of the Badatz Kehilos, has paskened that people are obligated to tear their shirts uupon returning to the Kotel. People who wish to absolve themselves of this and avoid it can give the shirt as a gift to a friend, and then with permission to wear it, he won't have to tear it.
Rav Stern interestingly says he has seen people tear shirts at the Kotel but it is generally people from abroad here visiting, while locals do not, but locals follow halacha as well and need to tear. Rav Stern suggests that maybe the local people not tearing have all used the solution of giving away the shirt, and that is not noticeable to the observer. Or else they come often to the Kotel and then do not need to tear even if only coming after a longer period than 30 days. Even if that is normally the case, now that we have experienced a longer period of time in which we were unable to go even if we wanted to, there will now be a need to tear kriya even if one normally does not.
source: Kikar
I would add that I heard, I think in the name of Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach but I am not sure, that the local minhag is to not tear, because we have the ability to go whenever we want. Even if that is normally the case, now that we experienced a period of almost two months in which we could not go even if we wanted to, perhaps he would also agree that we should tear kriya now upon returning to the Kotel.
For the past nearly two months, people have not been able to go to the Kotel to daven. The Kotel was closed to the general public. Even if you could get to the Old City, which you couldn't, they would not let you into the Kotel area. People are asking if they need to tear their shirts, tear "kriya", when going now, after being unable to go for such a long period?
Rav Elazar Stern of the Badatz Kehilos, has paskened that people are obligated to tear their shirts uupon returning to the Kotel. People who wish to absolve themselves of this and avoid it can give the shirt as a gift to a friend, and then with permission to wear it, he won't have to tear it.
Rav Stern interestingly says he has seen people tear shirts at the Kotel but it is generally people from abroad here visiting, while locals do not, but locals follow halacha as well and need to tear. Rav Stern suggests that maybe the local people not tearing have all used the solution of giving away the shirt, and that is not noticeable to the observer. Or else they come often to the Kotel and then do not need to tear even if only coming after a longer period than 30 days. Even if that is normally the case, now that we have experienced a longer period of time in which we were unable to go even if we wanted to, there will now be a need to tear kriya even if one normally does not.
source: Kikar
I would add that I heard, I think in the name of Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach but I am not sure, that the local minhag is to not tear, because we have the ability to go whenever we want. Even if that is normally the case, now that we experienced a period of almost two months in which we could not go even if we wanted to, perhaps he would also agree that we should tear kriya now upon returning to the Kotel.
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We covered this topic a number of years ago. I don't remember the details. We covered a situation where someone is a local in that they live close enough to the kotel every 30 days and they don't. There was an opinion that the persons lack of action was so horrible that they don't deserve to be able to tear kriya and it is assur for them to do so.
ReplyDeleteinteresting
Deletewhat if you can see har habayit in the interim (The Tayelet view)?
ReplyDelete