דיון על תשובת הבית אפרים לגבי ברכת כהנים בכל יום

In this post we offer a further analysis of the בית אפרים's תשובה regarding why אשכנזים don't perform ברכת כהנים daily.

1

The first problem with the בית אפרים's approach is that he accepts the current practice as is (even though the פוסקים have written it is wrong) and then tries to justify it after the fact. [1]

2

The second problem is his main thesis that כהנים today are not certainly כהנים. On this שיטה (in the context of returning פדיון הבן coins to the father of the baby because maybe the כהן isn't really a כהן) the ערוך השלחן [2] says that, in his opinion, is is אסור to hear such a thing(!) that would end up decreasing the elevated status of the כהונה today and ח"ו to say so. The ערוה"ש continues that where עזרא ascended from בבל, at which point all כהנים had a כתב יחוס, but some did not, still נחמיה told them that they remain in their חזקה. Certainly today, where no כהנים have a כתב יחוס, a כהן who does not have a כתב יחוס is no worse than anyone else, therefore there is no problem at all. חלילה חלילה to make any ספק or to use this סברא for any צירוף at all.

3

Additionally, the בית אפרים would seem (as far as I am aware) to be a דעת יחיד on this matter. None of the פוסקים make mention of his opinion in their discussion of our topic. In fact, the רמבם, on whom the בית אפרים bases his שיטה, also says (in the opening line of הלכות תפלה וברכת כהנים as well as נשיאת כפים יא:א) to perform ברכת כהנים daily, so evidently the רמבם wouldn't seem to apply this principle of כהני חזקה to ברכת כהנים.

[1] Some may say that every מנהג is sacred and no מנהג may ever be changed. The response to that is that indeed many מנהגים are sacred, and מנהגים play an important role in preserving the מסורת ההלכה and they must be studied in depth (which is the very purpose of this forum), still, not everything that anyone does necessarily has the status of a מנהג; we cannot automatically assume that every popular practice is necessarily halachically legitimate. Oftentimes, popular practices devolve from ignorance (of הלכה in general or of that הלכה in particular) in which case they should have limited halachic bearing. Rather, the origins and development of each individual מנהג must be examined in detail to determine whether or not it is legitimate, and, in the (unusual) instance where it is not, הלכה may decide that a particular מנהג is incorrect or mistaken, as the פוסקים often do themselves (such as the משנה ברורה who says{קכח:קסה}that there are those who do not perform ברכת כהנים on יו"ט that falls on שבת but this מנהג is not the הלכה at all; or, for example, the מחבר who says{או"ח תרה}to eliminate כפרות).

[2] יו"ד שה:נה