B'chasdei Hashem, over the past almost 20 years, Beis Mevakesh Lev has produced over 13,300 audio shiurim and over 31,000 written posts, unmatched by any one-person website - all completely free of charge. There are no paywalls or anything else. Now we are turning to you for help so we can continue - any amount will help. Even 99 cents! Thank you to my sweetest and most beloved friends!!!:-)!!
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I was listening to a shiur and the [cynical, anti-establishment rabbi-doctor] speaker described chumros as "making life more complicated for ourselves".
Let us say you are a teenager and you have a nutso crush on a girl. You are basically obsessed. Your greatest pleasure is to do something for her and see her pretty smile of satisfaction with you. That doesn't *complicate* life. That adds SPICE to life. [Note: Not an endorsement of coed environments:-)!!! Just a moshol....]
We LOVE Hashem. More than that flesh and blood girl [who, by the way, is not the perfect creature your teenage self may imagine her to be. She has issues. Trust me...:-)]. A chumra is our way of expressing our love and deep desire to fulfill Hashem's will in a maximalist way.
For some people there are 613 problems we have to deal with. For others there are 613 ways to connect to and express love and fear of Hashem. [The Zohar says that there are 613 עטין - etzos to get close to Hashem].
The main theme of the talk is that Halacha changes, not like those rabbis who claim that Halacha never changes. He then gave examples of where we don't follow a certain psak of the Shulchan Aruch but follow other opinions. So look - Halacha changes!!:-) Or cases where certain practices fell out of favor and other practices took their place.
What he misses is that *Halacha* didn't change. People's practices changed within the framework of Halacha. That is legitimate. The Shulchan Aruch is not Halacha Li-Moshe Mi-Sinai. That is why the Rema and all the other commentaries argue with it left and right. Halacha is Halacha and is immutable. But the term *Halacha* includes the Gemara, the Rishonim, the Acharonim down to contemporary poskim.
The other deviant streams of Judaism tried to change Halacha. That is why they are not legitimate.
