I walk into some local synagogue and I hear the Rav giving talk about the halacha not to put back food on the fire on the Sabbath day if it has not been totally cooked. That is like what people say a little bit of knowledge is dangerous. Because he did not mention an essential point. The Halacha has to do with fire. Only with fire is there cooking. If for example one took a magnifying glass and cooked his cholent completely from beginning to end --there is no מלאכה work of cooking involved.
תולדות חמה are not the same as תולדות אש. This is so common that people talk out of ignorance that I stopped paying attention. [heat produced by something heated by the sun is however a rabbinical decree, but there is no rabbinical decree about electricity which was not around at the time of the sages who had the authority to make decrees. This is a well known fact--but I can't remember the exact source for it this minute. But take my word for it. The power to make decrees stopped a long time ago. It comes up in the Gemara in a few places, that even in the time of the Talmud they no longer had the power to make a decree that was binding on all Israel. The Rambam also says this in the beginning of Mishna Torah.
Is there any reason to be strict? Not as far as I can tell. The question about being strict is in Rosh Hashanah 14b. Rabbi Akiva took two tithes from an etrog he picked on 1 Shevat. The Talmud asks how could he do this? We know if one holds by the lenient opinion of Beit Shamai and Beit Hill he is wicked. If he goes by the strict opinion of both, he is an idiot. כסיל בחושך הולך. "An idiot walks in darkness"
The Gemara concludes he was not sure of what the actual halacha was so he was strict.
So if there is a doubt, then there is a reason to be strict. But if not, there is no reason, and all the more so to go around making up a stringency and calling it "halacha" is a bad idea.
But there is a reason why the actual Torah is ignored, and people have to make up ways of being strict and pretending it is halacha. Because otherwise young people might stay home with their parents and fulfill the commandment of honoring their parents. You can't build a cult if people stay with their own families.
תולדות חמה are not the same as תולדות אש. This is so common that people talk out of ignorance that I stopped paying attention. [heat produced by something heated by the sun is however a rabbinical decree, but there is no rabbinical decree about electricity which was not around at the time of the sages who had the authority to make decrees. This is a well known fact--but I can't remember the exact source for it this minute. But take my word for it. The power to make decrees stopped a long time ago. It comes up in the Gemara in a few places, that even in the time of the Talmud they no longer had the power to make a decree that was binding on all Israel. The Rambam also says this in the beginning of Mishna Torah.
Is there any reason to be strict? Not as far as I can tell. The question about being strict is in Rosh Hashanah 14b. Rabbi Akiva took two tithes from an etrog he picked on 1 Shevat. The Talmud asks how could he do this? We know if one holds by the lenient opinion of Beit Shamai and Beit Hill he is wicked. If he goes by the strict opinion of both, he is an idiot. כסיל בחושך הולך. "An idiot walks in darkness"
The Gemara concludes he was not sure of what the actual halacha was so he was strict.
So if there is a doubt, then there is a reason to be strict. But if not, there is no reason, and all the more so to go around making up a stringency and calling it "halacha" is a bad idea.
But there is a reason why the actual Torah is ignored, and people have to make up ways of being strict and pretending it is halacha. Because otherwise young people might stay home with their parents and fulfill the commandment of honoring their parents. You can't build a cult if people stay with their own families.
