How Much Should a Chumra Cost?
Given the many financial pressures on frum families and institutions, are expensive chumros always helpful?
Jewish observance is complex. That's a blessing, as it allows us to express faithful adherence to halacha through a large variety of styles and traditions. Rabbi S.R. Hirsch, for instance, observed how each tribe and, indeed, each family was expected to build their own unique and representative culture within the eternal framework of halacha.
But that complexity comes with a challenge: since there are so many reasonable interpretations of any given halacha, there's often no way to clearly identify the ideal approach. The result, nearly invariably, is the presence of multiple mainstream opinions occupying a sliding scale of rigor. The Jewish "consumer," therefore, must regularly choose which point on that scale to adopt.
I suspect that we often make those choices without full awareness of their long-term social and economic consequences. And the odds are that we’re often also largely unaware of our primary motivations.
What is a chumra?
But first, what exactly is a chumra? There are, to my knowledge, four types:
The decision, in a case where mainstream poskim disagree over a practice, to follow the stricter opinion.
The decision to enhance (מהדר) the observance of a mitzva by spending up to one-third more than the basic cost of a kosher item (like a sefer Torah or an esrog). Note that, based on the Gemara (Bava Kama 9b) there's no Divine reward of any type for costs incurred above 150% of the price of a kosher item.
The decision, based on עשית הישר והטוב (Devarim 6:18) to extend reasonable consideration to an individual who might not otherwise have a legal claim in matters of property ownership. Rashi characterizes this as going "לפנים משורת הדין."
The decision to abstain from otherwise permitted physical enjoyment so as not become a נבל ברשות התורה (in the Ramban's language).
Why adopt chumros?
Now, a more important question is "why should I want to be machmir?"
Well, number 3 should be obvious: if the Torah expects us to be considerate of the financial needs of our neighbors, who are we to argue? The value of number 4 isn’t too hard to to figure out, either - especially for those of us whose doctors have, in any case, recommended moderation in our diets.
But the first two aren’t so clear. Are those types of chumra meant to be expressions of love for God, where we offer Him levels of loyalty even beyond His mitzvos? I’m not sure I understand how, in actual practice, that should work.
For instance, we're advised to specifically avoid chumros in some areas of halacha, sometimes because of the potential risks (כל המוסיף גורע), sometimes because they’re not appropriate for you in your current state (יוהרא - see Berachos 17b), and other times because it's simply inappropriate - אל תהי צדיק הרבה. So, given the many potential constraints, adopting personal chumros will often come with far greater risk than they're worth.
Some will no doubt respond that, to be safe, one should only adopt chumros that are already widely observed. But I would suggest that most people (myself included) are incapable of reliably taking on such practices from love - the rest of us are probably just doing it for fear of appearing different from the crowd ("virtue signalling" as some characterize it). That kind of "love" can't be worth much!
Wouldn't simply devoting ourselves to more faithfully following His מצוות be far more effective? הנה שמע מזבח טוב להקשיב מחלב אילים (I Shmuel 15:22). So just how does adopting chumros of types 1 and 2 improve me as a human being or as a Jew?
With that background, let’s look at some of the more expensive chumros that are currently popular.
Heimishe hechsherim
In some circles it’s assumed that the quality of kashrus supervision of private chassidishe organizations is more exacting than the larger communal institutions like the OU (Orthodox Union). Why? Because the heimishe organizations use only heimishe and yeshiva-trained mashgichim, because they’re smaller and can therefore give greater attention to detail, and because, since they’re not run for profit, they likely face fewer conflicts of interest.
But I doubt any of that is true:
I’ve known many fine, yeshiva-educated, and supremely conscientious mashgichim who have worked at all levels for large national kashrus companies. Conversely, I’m sure many, if not all, smaller organizations have had their share of problems. In the real world, quality doesn’t seem to neatly divide according to ideology.
Smaller organizations may or may not have the capacity for attention to fine detail, but they almost always lack the sophisticated control and audit tools used by the big players. In addition, they will often rely on the national companies for many of the base ingredients used in the products they’re supervising.
It’s my understanding that Bedatz Yerushalayim, for instance, is a private and for-profit company. In that sense, the OU is certainly no worse, since their profits are redirected to the charitable ventures run by the larger OU organization.
There may well be areas where heimishe organizations deliver significant improvements, but the differences are clearly not obvious or overwhelming. Nevertheless, even if there are advantages, there are many individual items whose heimishe hechsher versions cost consumers 50% or even 100% more per unit. And that, over a full year of shopping, will add a lot to your grocery budget.
Matza shemura
There is no mitzva to eat matza shemura for the full week of Pesach (as opposed to just at the sedarim, where it is required). Nevertheless, many choose to avoid non-shemura (“18 minute”) matza and eat only matza shemura.
There might be some substance to this practice. The shemura and non-shemura processes use different wheat. Shemura runs will use only flour from wheat that was supervised from before harvest (to ensure that the crop was brought in from the fields before it fully ripened) and on. 18 minute matza, on the other hand, is made from flour that was inspected and supervised only from the pre-grinding stage.
There are solid halachic sources supporting both approaches, and the major hashgachos involved in 18 minute runs are testifying that they’re chometz-free. But one can understand why some may be reluctant to be lenient.
Still, this is an expensive chumra, as machine shemura costs around 2.5 times the price of 18 minute, and the cost of hand shemura is around 10 times higher. Given the volumes purchased and consumed over the Pesach week, the difference can add up.
Chazon Ish esrogim
Even in North America, perfectly kosher and acceptable esrogim are generally available in the $50 range. Applying the 150% rule from Bava Basra mentioned above, that means there’s no logic to spending more than $75 on an esrog. And yet, it’s common for people - particularly members of the low-income kollel/yeshiva population - to spend $200 or $300 on an esrog.
Given that pre-war communities rarely had access to more than a few sets per shul - and never more than one per household - it’s notable that those same kollel/yeshiva families generally insist on purchasing sets for all the males in the family (those below 13 in particular).
How did this happen? Part of the “blame” can be attributed to the position of the Chazon Ish regarding grafted esrogim (מורכבים). While nearly all mainstream poskim agree that one may not use a esrog grown from the branch of a tree that had, itself, been grafted, esrogim grown on trees that themselves grew from seeds whose origins might have included grafting are permitted. The Chason Ish (and, interestingly, Rav Kook) encouraged us to reject even “second-generation” grafting.
There would seem to be two problems with this:
As some poskim point out, it’s simply not possible to be sure that, 2,000 years back, the ancestors of any given tree anywhere in the world hadn’t been grafted. After all, we know from Chazal that grafting was a common practice in the ancient world. As a talmid chochom once told me he’d heard from close relatives who owned esrog orchards in Israel: “there’s no such thing as a בלתי מורכב esrog…”
The demand for a relatively scarce commodity - esrogim sold by vendors who claim their products are graft-free - predictably drives prices up.
Here’s a chumra whose price premium, arguably, excludes it from Torah principles. And yet families line up each year to spend $1,000+ of funds they don’t have.
Sheitels
As I wrote in my Making Sense of the Sheitel Industry article:
Married women who cover their hair with a sheitel rather than some kind of tichel are enthusiastically portrayed in much of the frum world as following the ideal approach. It can be argued that there are some perfectly sound reasons for permitting the practice, but it’s much harder to claim that, in halachic terms, it’s actually preferred.
There is certainly no shortage of serious halachic authorities who consider a sheitel to be an adequate hair covering (ובכללם הרמ“א אורח חיים שג:ו והמגן אברהם אורח חיים עה:ה). But there’s also quite a lineup on the other side. Among the powerful voices who feel that a woman wearing a wig is equivalent to one who exposes her hair in public are the Be’er Sheva (סי’ יח), Rabbi Shlomo Kluger (קנאת סופרים – דף כד ע”ב תשובה עב), the Chasam Sofer (בהגהותיו על שו“ע סימן ע”ה) and, in more recent generations, the Klausenberger Rebbe (שו“ת דברי יציב יו”ד ח“א סימן נו), and Rabbi Ovadya Yosef (יביע אומר ח”ה אה”ע סי’ ה).
One should note that the חזון איש is reported to have preferred the sheitel because it will often do a better job covering even loose or stray hairs. However, that won’t help for the stricter opinions, because they believe a woman wearing a sheitel has already effectively exposed all of her hair.
So it’s not clear that wearing sheitels even qualifies as a chumra. But no one will argue that the practice has created one of the most expensive consumer markets facing the frum world.
As that earlier article estimated, retail sheitel prices have outgrown inflation over the past quarter century by around 40%. Which suggests that this is one chumra whose real costs are increasing.
Drawing conclusions
We’ve tried to better understand the anatomy of a chumra from the perspective of the Torah itself, along with the constraints that inevitably accompany them. We also asked some questions about why someone might want to adopt a chumra. And we explored some of the more expensive chumros that are popular within our contemporary communities.
I would hope that these thoughts might make intelligent choices and thoughtful discussions more likely.
As always, I’m eager to hear your thoughts, too.