Q&A: Clapping on Simchat Torah
Clapping on Simchat Torah
Question
Hello Rabbi,
In Peninei Halakha it says the following regarding clapping on Simchat Torah:
And this joy is so important that although the Sages decreed that one should not dance or clap on Sabbaths and Jewish holidays, lest this lead to repairing musical instruments (Beitzah 36b; Shulchan Arukh 339:3), the Geonim ruled that in honor of the joy of the Torah, it is permitted to dance and clap.
My question is: from where did the Geonim have the authority to overturn the enactment of the sages of the Talmud?
Best regards,
Answer
I think that the sealing of the Talmud was an ongoing process, one that was not fully recognized during the period of the Savoraim and even during the period of the Geonim. The fact is that there are later additions in the Talmud, some from the Savoraim and even some from the Geonic period. Tosafot and other medieval authorities write that Rav Acha, who is mentioned in the Talmud, is Rav Achai Gaon, the author of the She’iltot. True, I have seen that scholars maintain that the reference is to Rav Achai from the Savoraim, who were close to the time of Rav Ashi and Ravina. In any case, I do not know at what point in the Geonic period clapping was permitted.
And in any event, several halakhic decisors wrote that nowadays (already in the period of the medieval authorities and the Rema in the Shulchan Arukh) the decree is not applicable, because there is no concern that one will come to repair musical instruments. Later authorities also wrote (Arukh HaShulchan 339:7) that the decree was not made for a public gathering, because people would not come to repair anything, and that is also how they explained the Geonim’s leniency.
And where there is a significant need, and the sages of that place see it that way, they can also locally suspend a Talmudic rule. I do not know what existed in the Geonic period, when the celebration of the Torah was instituted, but perhaps they saw a need to strengthen it by means of a special permission.
Discussion on Answer
One may be lenient, since it will not lead to repairing musical instruments, especially if there is an additional factor for leniency, such as when it is done in public. It is like the dispute regarding medicines because of grinding ingredients on the Sabbath: today people are lenient, at least in medical matters that do not involve actual medicines.
And what about the approach of the Jerusalem Talmud (Beitzah 5:2) and Ulla in the Babylonian Talmud (Eruvin 104a, and Rabbenu Chananel there rules accordingly)? Why does the Rabbi think that the decree against making sounds does not apply because of weekday-like activity, as the Ran (Shabbat 2a) and Rabbi Saul Lieberman wrote?
On what grounds did the Rabbi find reason to reject it?
In the Talmud in Eruvin they are talking about producing a sound, not about weekday-like activity, and in the final analysis it seems that this too was rejected. In general, the law of producing a new effect does not appear consistently in the early halakhic decisors (although later authorities did bring it, including regarding electricity on the Sabbath). And in the passage there it appears that making a sound specifically is not because of weekday-like activity, because otherwise we would have had to prohibit all the cases mentioned there on account of making a sound, for there is no greater example of weekday-like activity than those cases (far more than clapping, which really is not weekday-like activity at all). And in Maimonides (23:4) and the Shulchan Arukh (338:1) it is explicit that the concern is lest one come to repair musical instruments.
I do not see why one needs to be concerned with every approach that someone once raised, especially when it seems unreasonable.
Does the Rabbi hold, as a practical halakhic ruling, that in general one may clap on the Sabbath? And even in accordance with a particular tune?