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We will take a look at some factors that help one make balanced decisions when the question of stringencies arises. Let us first point out that the desire to sanctify ourselves (including by refraining from that which is permitted) in order to advance our service of Hashem is positive and should be encouraged. With that, we must be wary of the related obstacles. Our words are based on the ideas of the great kohen, Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of Israel.
Chazal concluded: "Just as it is forbidden to rule that the impure is pure, so is it forbidden to rule that the pure is impure" (Yerushalmi, Terumot 5:3). Poskim apply this idea generally to forbidding the permitted, (see Beit Yosef, YD 115; Aruch Hashulchan, YD 242:66). It is better to have 10 tefachim that stand than 100 that fall. Therefore, in creating walls of halacha, we mustn’t build so high that it threatens the structure. Rav Kook learns from this as follows. "One should not look to be stringent without a tradition from our teachers in a matter that is itself a distancing from sin. A stringency should not be built onto a stringency unless we have found it explicitly or we have clear proofs" (Orach Mishpat, OC 112).
Kabbalah teachings also indicate that one should be careful not to be stringent without a source. Rav Kook quotes Rav Chaim Vital as saying: "About such people it says: ‘They are wise to do bad [forbid] and they do not know how to do good [permit].’ Because they scorn the tree of life, Hashem does not help them, and they err in the details of the tree of life and the tree of knowing good and bad and turn it into bad, and they make impure that which is pure and forbid that which is permitted."
Rav Kook learns from the concept that one must use his teachers’ language that one should not call a minhag a halacha or a prohibition. He should distinguish between different levels of prohibition, and if there needs to be a one-time prohibition, he should acknowledge this. When one lumps things together, people are liable to take real halachot less seriously. Knowing his generation, Rav Kook said that when they see that the rabbis permit whatever they can, they learn that that which is not permitted cannot be permitted. This increases observance. When people find out that things are forbidden without need and the rabbis did not care about the toil of Israel, this causes a great chillul Hashem.
While we await the return of all the applications of the laws and stringencies of the kohanim, let us strengthen our resolve to improve our service of Hashem based on halacha’s guidelines.
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The Land of Israel LGBT'S IN ISRAEL
The question was asked, how can one make Aliyah with the LGBT parades?
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 7 - Five Accumulative Proofs of G-d
As a preparation for the Kuzari's classic proof of G-d from the mass-revelation at Sinai, we start here with 5 other directions to strengthen our belief which also contribute to what the Kuzari will present as well.
Ein Aya Muscle & Meaning: The Dual Nature of Gevurah (Physical Strength)
Is physical strength and fitness a necessity or an ideal? Although it if often totally overlooked among topics of Judaism, Rav Kook writes that it clearly is also a necessity to deter the many enemies of Israel, but even in Y'mot HaMashiach, in the Messianic era, to a certain extent, it's ideal continues even after our enemies will have been finished off.
Chukat "HOW ENTEBBE STOLE THE BICENTENNIAL
The Difference Between Historic & Eternal"
As we approach America's 250th birthday, it's worth remembering her 200th Bicentennial birthday, on Jul. 4th 1976, when Israel "stole the show" by shocking the world & miraculously saving 101 hostages in a foreign continent. As Pres. As Pres. Trump decides which countries get priority in his new Middle-East, it's worth reminding him of the difference between historic events and eternally historic ones. This obviously connects with this week's parsha, as well!
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 6 - The Parable of the King of India
The advantages of testimony over circumstantial evidence or philosophical speculation.
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 5- "Proofs of G-d"
This may be the most important class of the entire book, where we finally get to the Jewish proof of the existence of G-d and truth of the Torah. We should follow His own direction where He tells us how to get to Him: through the Nation of Israel: Jewish history, Jewish prophets (and today, prophecies fulfilled), and national reward & punishment towards Am Yisrael.
Ein Aya One Humanity, One Creator, One Jerusalem
Rav Kook innovatively and beautifully explains this aggadeta where our sages say that after Jerusalem was destroyed her cinnamon fragrance is only found locked in a particular kingdom's treasury.