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Frum fools

What do you think of that as a blog title? Research enough and you can dig up quite a number of chumros. But if you decide to keep every chumra you find, you are more foolish than frum. My husband was thumbing through a sefer today that digs up some chumros people have never heard of. My son thought there is something positive in this. I reminded him of what Chazal say of poeple who adopt the chumros of both Hillel and Shamai: they are fools. They are not lauded for their scrupulousness but derided for their lack of judgement.
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Josh M. said…
Perhaps there's value in limud she-lo al m'nas la'asos?
June 8, 2009 at 3:12:00 PM EDT
Chaim B. said…
The problem is these chumros appear in popular (English) books designed for the layperson who often cannot distinguish d'oraysa from derabbanan from minhag from chumra. Either you will create a culture of dependency where everything is a shayla (which perhaps some may view as the ideal) or a culture of disdain where since everything is a potential problem why make the effort in the first place? I think there can/should be such a thing as an halachically-educated layperson who is capable of making basic informed decisions but knows at what point to consult an expert (a rav).
June 8, 2009 at 4:05:00 PM EDT
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