Intentionally so. I gave two reasons why the category of chumeros in R @YGB’s taxonomy of being chosheish for other shitos bothered me:
- Conceptual inconsistency – which I typified as a Brisk vs Telzh thing, but the number of people on either side is much larger than that.
- Distrust in the halachic process
To find a case of #1 alone, I intentionally went to a domain that had no active pesaqim to find that egregious case of Cholent Chumra* by a noted contemporary (and Brisker) poseiq.
(* I think you should Trademark)
Well, maybe when it comes to the strings. But still, you’re yotzei lavan either way, so nothing lost, even if you might be wrong and nothing gained.
Or, perhaps until there is a pesaq …אלו ואלו דברי אלוקים חיים. The gemara I quoted earlier, about combining chumeros is clearly from before והלכה כבית הלל… because it starts “והרוצה לעשות כדברי בית שמאי עושה כדברי בית הלל עושה” and concludes similarly. Which gives weight to the אלו ואלו idea.
But R Herschel Schachter ends up with lots of details that come from contradictory rationals. Lo zakhisi lehavin.
Drifting more to the details specific to my example:
In this particular case, the Semag does hold “any of the above”, arguably a fourth shitah. But still, possible.
When it comes to the strings, none of these differences are me’aqeiv. So this Opa would apply the opposite quip, “Whatever you do is equally right.”
(Personally, I do something that preserves the current Ashkenazi 7-8-11-13 but with chulyos of 3 as well. Although truth is, the real Minhag Ashkenaz was 7-9-11-13, until Tzefas. A diference between 40 and 40-chaseir-achas, both notable numbers in our mesorah. But 7-8-11-13 can make 13 chulyos divided the way the Ari says (think Chabad tzitzis).