Law and custom
Hello Rabbi
I saw in one place that you wrote that if I studied a subject and came out like one of the first, I could write like him.
And in another place you wrote that today customs follow not according to place but according to origin. So even if I studied Sugya and came out like, say, the Shua, I am still obligated to follow like the Rema and like in Holin 18 and other places in Shas.
You are mixing up levels. When you study and if you are a bar-hi, you must act according to your conclusion in your study. If you do not have an opinion, you follow the custom. The custom today is a custom of a group/origin (unlike in the past when it was a custom of a place). The Ashkenazim used to follow like the Rema, and therefore if you do not have an opinion, you follow like him. But if you do – do what works for you (if you are a bar-hi).
Thanks for the answer, but the Gemara, Holin 18, page 2, states that Rabbi Zira ate the food of Derab and Shmuel because that is how it came out for him, and the Gemara asks Rabbi Zira about the place where it came out from, and the obligation to follow the custom comes from this mishna.
See there the commentators who wrote that this is a matter of halakhic law and not of halacha. In its places of origin, it was strictly forbidden to eat the meat of the devas and shmuel. It is clear that this is not a halakhic custom but a non-halakhic custom, and in this they do indeed follow the custom. I was talking about a halakhic ruling that there is no place for custom in this except in a place where I do not have my own position.
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