The question of how many days of Yom Tov to keep if one is visiting Israel from the Diaspora arises more frequently today than at any point in Jewish history. Nevertheless, it did arise often enough to leave a paper trail in halakhic sources and three schools of thought have developed. The first, following R. Yosef Karo, believes that unless one can be defined as a resident of Israel—to be defined momentarily— one has to observe two days of Yom Tov in Israel. In his responsum, R. Karo reports witnessing public minyanim for the second day of Yom Tov, and says that they were a longstanding practice conducted without objection in front of important rabbis. He suggests that the problem of lo titgodedu, of not publicly observing a different custom from the host community, only applied to holiday-prohibited labor, but not to prayers.

In a previous sheet, we saw that for at least some issues of prayers, lo titgodedu or its equivalent applies, so the reasoning here does not seem particularly convincing. As a further issue to consider, in the Shulhan Arukh, R. Karo mentions that a person from Israel who is in the diaspora for Yom Tov may not violate Yom Tov publicly, but does not mention anything about a person from the diaspora who is in Israel.

The operative question for R. Karo is whether one is still defined as a diaspora resident— following the standard halakhic categories used when deciding which of two customs to follow. Later authorities have enunciated several leniencies in the definition. R. Shlomo Zalman Auerback, ztll"h, held that if someone owns a residence in Israel and has the general practice of being there for all three of the regalim, Pesah, Shavuot and Sukkot, that person can be defined as a resident of Israel in terms of this halakhah. Interestingly, R. Shlomo Zalman thinks that this person qualifies as a resident of Israel even more than someone who lives six months a year in Israel, since this person never—barring unforeseen circumstances— experiences Yom Tov in the diaspora.

Parenthetically, R. Shlomo Zalman believes that a diaspora Jew observing two days of Yom Tov in Israel may ask an Israeli Jew to perform prohibited labors on Yom Tov. Both of these leniencies, as well as his phrasing, suggest that R. Shlomo Zalman saw two days as a stringency, not as the only way to view the halakhah. Just to finish our residency leniencies, R. Ovadia Yosef believes that a bachelor who would be willing to settle in Israel if he met the right woman— regardless of his parent’s opposition— may also consider himself a resident of Israel.

The late 17th, early 18th century Hakham Zvi Ashkenazi formulated a completely different approach to the issue. He notes that nowadays we all know when the right day for Yom Tov is. The gemara, in fact, already reports that we keep two days of Yom Tov to follow a principle known as "minhag avoteinu be-yadenu," adhering to our forefathers’ customs even if the reason for it has dissipated. Hakham Zvi says that there is no reason to think that the custom was to observe two days of Yom Tov; it was, rather, to observe two days of Yom Tov in the diaspora. If someone had been in Israel, even accidentally, there would be no reason to keep a second day.

How people decide between these two views today depends largely on how they view the balance between traditionalism and critical thinking in halakhah. Certainly, the bulk of traditional sources follow R. Karo’s view, but as a sevara, it has little to recommend it. First, there’s no good reason that the gemara’s warning to be careful of our forefathers’ customs meant that we should keep two days even in a place where they did not. Second, the issues of lo titgodedu, as I’ve written previously, seem manifestly obvious and problematic.

The weight of tradition should not, however, be ignored. In that regard, R. Shmuel Salant and the Rov held a middle position, called a day and a half in common parlance. This view involves acting stringently both ways— by keeping a second day, but trying to fulfill as many of the mitsvot of the weekday and the holiday as possible (not keeping Yom Tov, but not performing prohibited work, and trying to listen to others' kiddush, etc.). Having acted this way many times, I can say that it does not feel particularly satisfactory as a halakhic stance; it does, however, have the advantage of showing respect for both points of view.

Daf Yomi