Taanit Bekorot
I once read an article of yours that claims that there are laws that are not observed for meta-halachic reasons, and instead of giving urgent answers, you prefer to say out loud – we do not observe this mitzvah because it is not practical. You gave the prohibition of Arshaga as an example.
Do you think this is also the case with the Fast of Firstborns? It seems that in the past, people would fast and be asked whether it is permissible to eat at a covenant meal (only at the meal, not the entire day after), and whether it is only the covenanter, the mohel, and the godfather, or everyone present. Today, the custom is for someone to conclude Tractate Avot with Kehat and everyone eats Rogelach (outside, of course, so as not to defile the synagogue), and then they are already exempt from fasting because they have already broken their fast at a mitzvah meal.
The question is why did we reach this state? Arvah writes that it is because of the weakness of generations, but to the best of my judgment we are much healthier and stronger than before (perhaps with less muscle mass, but in general, the diet is richer, more varied, health problems are monitored and treated, etc.) so this taste has also fallen away.
By the way, this is the place to complain that it is not clear where the assumption comes from that there is a decline in generations in the intellectual sense, and yet for some reason there is an even more annoying assumption (which the infidel denies as much as the infidel in the Torah and Moses our Rabbi) that there is also a decline in people’s strength.
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