Q&A: Custom
Custom
Question
Hello and blessings!
1. Have you ever written in an orderly way about the nature of the obligation involved in ancestral custom? Why should what our ancestors accepted obligate us? Is there any source for this at all?
Answer
These things are well known. The Talmud in tractate Pesachim, in the chapter “A Place Where They Have the Custom,” discusses a source from the verse, “Do not forsake your mother’s teaching.” Others want to argue that it can be derived from a vow (following the Jerusalem Talmud), etc. There are surveys online. Search for “custom.” By the way, it is generally accepted that a custom is one of a place, not of one’s ancestors. In the past, those went together.
Discussion on Answer
It is likely just a scriptural support or a clarification, and perhaps received tradition, and there is no reason to distinguish among the Prophets. If he really is mistaken, then it is a mistake like any other mistake.
Regarding “Do not forsake” — that is from the book of Proverbs. I thought only the books of the Prophets have the status of received tradition that can introduce Jewish laws?
Regarding a vow — after all, the son follows his father’s custom because he thinks he is obligated to do so, and if he knew he had a choice he might act differently — isn’t that a mistaken vow?