Notes from the Underground -- loss of a leader

1) I was looking for something related to inyana d'yoma to share from R Nachum Rabinovich, R"Y of Birkat Moshe in Maale Adumim, who passed away today, and what caught my eye was the concluding paragraph to a teshuva in Siach Nachum on the topic of shaving during chol ha'moed, the three weeks, and sefira.  I feel a little bad as it's almost too small a point to even remark on given the greatness of the man.  After going through an analysis of the geder of the issur of haircuts and shaving during aveilus and moed, which I wont get into, R' Rabinovich turns his attention to sefira.  He notes that the minhagei aveilus are not brought in Rambam or many other Rishonim; the Tur merely says "yesh nohagim she'lo l'histaper." We find in Achronim that there were communities that kept the minhag and communities that didn't -- it was not a universal practice.  Furthermore, the minhag seems to refer to avoiding haircuts, not shaving.  Based on these considerations, R' Rabinovich concludes there is ample room to be lenient and shave during sefira and during the three weeks up until the 9 days, especially if one is doing so l'kavod Shabbos.  Ad kan the technical details of what any posek might tell you.  Rav Rabinovich then adds: with respect to any minhag, one must consider how one's community and one's peer group acts so that he is not "standing when other are sitting or sitting when others are standing," (Derech Eretz Rabbah ch 7) i.e. acting out of lockstep of the norm.  He advises that with respect to what to do, one should follow the practice of one's father.  You would expect the teshuvah to justify this based on something like "al titosh," but that's not what he says.  The justification is that if one's father is clean shaven but one walks around with a beard, or vica versa it would surely create embarrassment and be a source of friction between parent and child.  Kibud av outweighs the minhag.

 

Psak is not a cut and dry accumulation of facts -- the teshuvah reflects tremendous sensitivity for kavod ha'briyos, for the impact behavior may have on others, for "darkei no'am."  A model to emulate.

 

2) Maybe I should make providing information like the article below into a daily feature -- I have mixed feelings about it.  Anyway, here is a letter in The Lancet (pretty chashuv) from a doctor who points out that, "There is very little we can do to prevent this spread: a lockdown might delay severe cases for a while, but once restrictions are eased, cases will reappear. I expect that when we count the number of deaths from COVID-19 in each country in 1 year from now, the figures will be similar, regardless of measures taken." 

 

So basically, all this sitting in our bunkers is saving no one and just inflicting unnecessary misery on people.  Which brings us to the headline of the day from CNBC: "Cuomo says it's 'shocking' most new coronavirus hospitalizations are people who had been staying at home."   It's only shocking if you stick your head in the sand and refuse to accept reality.