and furthermore machon shilo is not against all sefardic customs. it depends on different factors including the sensibility of the given customs.

What is Judaism for you? Lots of different minhagim???? I find your talkback shocking. It is our strengh that we don´t consider our great rabbis infallible and don´t turn them into saints like Christians. As to kitniot: most of my Ashkenazi friends don´t eat kitniot, but almost all of them eat kitniot derivatives.

I am shocked at the depth of the hatred and derision emanating from some of these talk-backs. We should all learn to discuss ideas amicably, otherwise we WILL end up with civil war. The Internet should not be used to mask hatred spewed anonymously.

I am M.O. Jew, Ashkenazi. I find this Kitniyot issue so silly. Why should we separate ourselves from the Sephardi; because it is so difficult for some to recognize that some Rabbis made a mistake years ago. It blame it on custom or tradition is mindless. The custom of my family in Russia was to ride to see family in a horse drawn wagon. Should I go back to that era? The rabbis only used candles, is that what we aspire to?

was talkback 64 just guessing or is he aware of the ridiculous looking garb that Rav Bar chaim wears?

Anyone who has ever heard R Bar Chaim's shiur on this subject (despite the fact that he is an accomplished torah scholar and worthy of tremendous respect) will immediately get the impression that this is one pesak whose conclusion came before the rationale behind it. He seems to think that if Jews in Israel will abandon this minhag it will bring the Geula.

Rav Bar Chaim pronounces Hebrew differently than almost all Jews, he has a nusach of tefilah different then almost all Jews he is "an innovative thinker and rabbi". How is it that almost no one is willing to listen to his pesak in any area except to permit them to eat kitniyot on Pesach? Is that genuine or consistent halachically?

The Kitniyot custom is in fact Sefardi since the Ashkenazi Minhag is not to eat it. It doesn't matter what it was historically; what matters is what the current Minhag is. The reason why the Minhag remains, for the record, is that we do not have any Rabbanim across the board who are great enough to overturn a ruling from some 800 years ago. Although Jewish tradition mandates that we turn to our Rabbanim for guidance and considers them the equivalent of Moshe himself, we still have a tradition that a Beit Din that wants to overturn the ruling of a previous Beit Din must be greater spiritually. That is certainly not the case presently, especially with all of the scandals and corruption in all religious circles. Until we have such a Beit Din, the Minhag shall continue to be practiced by Ashkenazim. However, understand this: Rabbanim do make mistakes. I do not worship Rabbanim as if they are infallible - that is a Christian practice. In fact, I'm known somewhat for calling out Rabbanim on various issues when they are incorrect - but I do so in a discrete manner so as not to embarrass them. It is highly inappropriate to call out an 800 year old ruling and dub it wrong. If Rav Bar-Chaim is Ashkenazi, it certainly appears that he has an issue with his own traditions, unless he is from Italy, Spain or Portugal, in which case his tradition is probably not to eat Kitniyot or at least is a big question mark. However, If he is Sefardi, he has no business dictating to Ashkenazim what they should be doing (this is the kind of thing Rav Ovadia Yosef does and it is inappropriate as well. I also decry Ashknazim who tell others what they should be doing, for the record). Also, I'd like to point out that your logic is along the lines of that which the Conservative and Reform branches of Judaism use to justify their positions regarding various breaches in Halacha which are not justifiable to begin with - that the Torah must evolve with the times and therefore we can modify Halacha any way we choose. This is not what the Torah mandates; especially when the Torah uses the words which translate as "your future generations."

Decriminalize Bigamy. /There are many single women out there who want to have Jewish children. And cant find good husbands. How was the guy from Tel Aviv able to find 32 women to marry him.

Your statement "If we abandon our age old traditions we will have nothing left" ... is true ... but only in the galut. We needed those traditions, because nothing tangible was keeping us together. Today we have our homeland, and a Jewish government representing us. The Jewish nation will experience many more changes throughout the process of redemption. I welcome the open-mindedness of some Jews to question certain customs that are dividing the various communities of the ingathered exiles. We need to be finding more common ground between us, so that one day, hopefully soon, we can speak with one voice, and realize our shared goal of a true and everlasting redemption.

Amazing how most people here can't read an opinion on it's own merit without upsetting their world view. Doesn't anyone do their own critical thinking? If you don't agree with him move on. If you do, great. What a bunch of whiners.

rav bar hayim's kiniyot audio shiur is extremely lucid, logical and his conclusions are drawn in an intellectually honest fashion. as in all of his halachic conclusions he only reaches a decision if objective reasoning supports it.

it is a briefer beautiful nusach tefillah which can reinject excitement into your tefillah. kol hakavod to rav david bar hayim.

I wish I had heard about Rabbi David Bar-Hayim decades ago.

At Har sinai which is in galut. Although the Shulchan Aruch were written in Eretz Yisrael, it is made up of opinions from chutz l'aretz. We mainly posken from the Talmud Bavli.

Because there was never a ban in Israel on eating kitniyot, the vast majority of pesach products here are marked "l'ochlei kitniyot" since there is no end to what may or may not be considered kitniyot by various people, whether or not kitnoyot are really in the marked product. I hope more of R. Bar Hayim's rulings are publicized - it is a great thing to make Judaism more palatable (no pun intended) to Jews everywhere.

To Wise Saba, #5. If our faith is based on bobbe-maises like this, I am in the wrong faith. We have much better stuff to follow and just as this custom was introduced for a good reason, that reason is of no relevance today. I cannot imagine the people who introduced it intended it be enshrined