Q&A: Ancestral Custom
Ancestral Custom
Question
Hello Rabbi,
My general question is how one should properly decide which halakhic ruling to follow.
1. Should it be according to my ancestors’ custom? And if so, why? What’s the logic behind that? Why not follow a different rabbi (whose rulings seem more reasonable to me)?
2. Why can’t one follow Rabbi A in one place and Rabbi B elsewhere? I understand that “make for yourself a rabbi” also means to conduct yourself according to one rabbi. If I don’t agree with the rabbi’s judgment, can I follow another rabbi?
Answer
- You’re pushing on an open door. In my view, halakhic ruling relies on your own reasoning and your own decision in the topic, with no obligation at all to customs. If you’re not capable of doing that, choose a rabbi. And only if the Jewish law is shaky in your hands should you follow the custom.
2. You absolutely can. Just don’t choose a rabbi based on the answer he gives (“from the leniencies of Beit Shammai and the leniencies of Beit Hillel—a wicked person”). If you don’t agree with his judgment, then you’re capable of deciding, and therefore there’s no need at all to ask a rabbi (though you can consult with him). If from the outset you asked a halakhic question, there is strong grounds for the claim that you are obligated to obey. If one sage forbade something, his colleague may not permit it, and seemingly the questioner himself is also included.
Discussion on Answer
1. The opposite. In the third case, we’re talking about someone who does have the tools, but whose conclusion is uncertain (you don’t have a clear position. That can happen even to a clear-cut halakhic decisor). In such a situation, one can follow the custom.
2. Not exactly. I explained that the wickedness is in looking for leniencies rather than truth.
Thank you very much for the answers
So ancestral custom has no significance? I can choose to change halakhic ruling as I wish? Assuming I change once and not every two days.
(For example, let’s say I’m Sephardi and decide that from now on I follow the Shulchan Arukh and not Rabbi Ovadia, because my mother’s tradition is more important to me)
Thank you
1. From your words I understand that there are 3 levels. Is the difference between the second and the third that in the second I have the ability to understand what the foundations of the rabbi’s ruling are whom I choose to follow (and then agree or disagree with those foundations), while in the third I don’t, and therefore I should follow the custom?
2. Is the reason for the obligation to obey after asking, in order not to end up with the same wickedness you mentioned at the beginning?