R' Moshe (dibros heara #54) makes a fascinating point from the story of Shimon Hatzadik who refused to eat from the asham offering of a nazir tamei, except for the one time that he was convinced that his kavana was complete and did no have any regrets about his neziurs. When an Asham is sacrificed in the Beis Hamikdash all the kohanim present have a joint responsibility (even if we call it a chiyuv on the cheftza see hearos daf 4b) to eat the entire korban. The chumra of shimon hatzadik was very strange in that if all the kohanim would keep this chumra they would be in violation of a chiyuv to eat the korban. The chumra of Shimon Hatzadik could only be kept because there were other kohanim who did not have such a chumra. But clearly, if all the kohanim present in the azarah would have had such a chumra, even Shimon Hatzadik would forgo on this chumra in order to ensure that the chiyuv of eating the korban be fulfilled. Furthermore, if all the kohanim present had such a chumra they would all have an obligation to partake of the korban, rather than drawing lots and forcing the looser to be the one who eats, since this would be a real zilzul of the mitzvah.
2 comments:
beautiful ha'ara - by definition a chumra is meant to be kept by a few people and not by everybody. Based on this idea, Rav Shternbuch explains the gemara in Chulin where one of the amoraim said he is like "vinegar the son of wine" compared to his father who waited 24 hourse between meat and milk, whereas the son only waits between seudah l'seudah. The obvious question is that the son could have also just waited the 24 hours! Rav Shternbuch explains that the son was lamenting that the chumra would have been inappropriate for him because he is not as great a tzadik as his father, and a chumra can only be taken by somebody who it makes sense for.
My friend, Rabbi Yehuda Balsam, told me that a parent of one of his talmidin once told him that he keeps a suitcase packed just in case Mashiach comes because "the Chafeitz Chaim kept a suitcase". He wanted to tell the guy "You fool! anybody can pack a suitcase! It doesn't make you the Chafeitz Chaim. What made the Chafeitz Chaim special was that it made sense for him to do this because it fit with how he lived his life in general."
does the person who keeps the chofetz chaim suitcase chumra also keep the chofetz chaim's loshon hora "chumra"? - maybe you shouldn't answer that one :)
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