German Jewish Tradition

Last year, a TABC student of German-Jewish descent posed the following question after I expressed that Sepharadim, Teimanim, and East European Jews should wait a full six hours between meat and milk: He wondered that since we must follow the Shulchan Aruch, which advocates waiting six hours, must he abandon his family tradition of waiting three hours? I rousingly responded that he should maintain his family’s tradition.

I explained that I reject the five-hour wait when it contradicts a generational family tradition. However, German Jews traditionally wait three hours between meat and milk and should continue their tradition despite it running counter to the Shulchan Aruch.

Rav Yosef Karo’s Limitation On the Shulchan Aruch

Rav Yosef Karo clarifies in his introduction to the Shulchan Aruch that this monumental work should not uproot preexisting minhagim. He urges communities who maintain contradictory approaches to what he sets forth in the Shulchan Aruch to maintain their venerated practices. Thus, German Jews should keep their three-hour wait since their practice predates the Shulchan Aruch.

Rabbeinu Yerucham

Moreover, this practice has a source in a Rishon—Rabbeinu Yerucham (Issur V’heter no. 39)—and is alluded to in the Chayei Adam (127:10). TABC alumni Yitzchak Haber and Steven (Shlomo) Kluger suggest two explanations for this practice. One possibility is that it is a compromise between the Rambam and Tosafot (similar to the Taz’s—Y.D. 89:2—justification for the one-hour opinion). Another possibility is that this approach believes three hours is a normal time interval between meals (many dieticians recommend frequently eating small meals).

Who Is a German Jew?

However, only Jews of legitimate German descent may suffice with a three-hour wait. Only those who follow the full range of German Jewish minhagim, such as washing Netilat Yadayim before Kiddush and men wearing a tallit before marriage, may suffice with a three-hour wait.

For example, I know of a family who spent over 500 years in Galicia (southeastern Poland) and 20 years in Germany between World War I and World War II(due to severe economic distress in post-World War I Galicia) and waits only three hours between meat and milk. This is the only German Jewish custom this family follows.

Respectfully, I find this incorrect. Following the German Jewish custom when they lived in Germany is one thing. They should have restored their Eastern European practice once they fled to America in the wake of Kristallnacht.

Gerim (Converts) and Ba’alei Teshuva

I heard of a very learned convert who decided to follow the German Jewish custom as a compromise between the Rambam requiring a six-hour wait and Tosafot requiring only one to conclude their meat meal before consuming dairy. I do not find this legitimate. Converts typically follow the accepted practices of the community they join and the Rebbe who brought them under the wings of the Shechina. Unless they join a German-Jewish synagogue or their Rebbe is of German-Jewish descent, they should adopt the predominant custom among Am Yisrael to wait six hours before eating dairy.

Similarly, ba’alei teshuva should not suffice with a three-hour wait. They should adopt their Rebbe’s traditions, the community’s traditions, or (as Chacham Ben Zion Abba Sha’ul advocates) the community from which their ancestors descend. Unless any of these are of German Jewish descent, they may not suffice to wait three hours. If they have a solid German-Jewish background, they should adopt all German Jewish practices, not just the convenience of sufficing with a three-hour wait between meat and milk.

A talmid asked if a father randomly decided to wait three hours, must he continue his father’s practice. He thought maybe his father initiated a tradition/mesora, which his children should continue. I responded that his father’s random choice does not create a legitimate halachic mesora. By contrast, the German Jewish practice of waiting three hours, rooted in Rabbeinu Yerucham’s writings and endorsed by great German talmidei chachamim generation after generation, is a legitimate halachic tradition. Despite Rav Asher Weiss (Teshuvot Minchat Asher 1:42:2) recommending even German Jews preferably wait six hours, they should proudly maintain their minhag. The Rambam (Hilchot Shemitta V’Yovel 10:6) writes, “Tradition and accepted practice are great pillars in establishing [Halachic] rulings, and it is appropriate to rely on them.”

Dutch Jews

Dutch Jews, however, have maintained the practice of waiting only one hour. The commentaries on the Shulchan Aruch offer two sources for this approach. The Vilna Gaon (Biur Hagra 89:6) writes that the practice is based on the Zohar in Parashat Mishpatim, which speaks of the prohibition of eating milk and meat within one hour. The Zohar essentially follows Tosafot, that one may consume milk following the recitation of Birkat Hamazon after a meat meal. The Zohar adds waiting an hour to further distinguish between a meat and milk meal.

The Taz (89:2) cites an entirely different explanation. He writes that it is a compromise between the opinion of Tosafot, who holds that Birkat Hamazon is the only boundary needed between meat and milk meals, and the Rambam, who believes that we must wait approximately six hours.

However, only those with a solid lineage of Dutch Jewry qualify for the one-hour wait. Having lived in Holland for several decades, absent a long-established family lineage of being Dutch Jews, is insufficient to be defined as a Dutch Jew.

Conclusion

Many years ago, a TABC alumnus, a Jew of German descent, was advised by a Rebbe at his Israeli yeshiva to follow all of the Vilna Gaon’s customs since this greatest sage was the leading Torah authority of the past three centuries. I urged the talmid not to heed his Rebbe’s advice.

How could he cut himself off from a 1,000-year-old tradition?

Part of Torah life’s beauty is our not being orphans in history. We follow our ancestors’ well-rooted traditions and look forward to our descendants continuing the chain. As I regularly remind my talmidim, the only chance your grandchildren will continue your traditions is if you continue your family’s generations-long traditions.

Rabbi Jachter serves as the rav of Congregation Shaarei Orah, rebbe at Torah Academy of Bergen County, and a get administrator with the Beth Din of Elizabeth. Rabbi Jachter’s 16 books, including a new one on Sefer Devarim, may be purchased at Amazon and Judaica House.