Most pre-packaged gebrochts items I’ve come across are high priced as all other packaged and sold for Passover foods. Why not just advocate eating ‘real’ foods – vegetables, eggs, fruits, chicken and/or meat (not cheap, but yom tov-dik). Potatoes, sweet potatos, turnips, carrots, cabbage, etc. are all easily accessible (and starchy) and not gebrochts.

The main draw I see to gebrochts for most people is the high priced “Passover noodles”, Passover desserts, etc.

However, a human hair out of the box can be had for well under $1,000. When I was single I used to pay (and this was over 22 years ago) about $65 a month for hairstyling and color, which would be about $780 per year anyway, and I know that those prices have gone up.

Even if I weren’t working in an office, I’d probably still go with the wig, because I’m possibly the only woman on earth who finds a well-fitted wig more comfortable then a hat.

See, for example, http://www.paulayoung.com
and http://thewigcompany.com

No rabbi teaches that a wig is as kosher as a scarf and many paskened that it’s assur. Now that would be a great start, beruchnius ubegashmius.

BTW it’s “vort”, meaning “word”, i.e. promise – the promise chassan-kallah give each other to marry each other.

And, most of the Orthodox community also does not use a chicken for kapparot, wear Rabbeinu Tam tefillin, or avoid gebrochts.

We have major economic problems in the Orthodox community from chronic underemployment to the recent layoffs of many members of the community that were earning enviable salaries, to lack of savings both personal and communal, to high debt loads. We need to cut pennies, we need to cut dollars, we need to cut thousands of dollars.

But, cutting a second day of Yom Tov simply isn’t possible and deflects from real expenses that could be cut and controlled. And I think in this worsening economy, whether people/organizations like it or not, they will have to face the music and start cutting things that can actually be cut.

The post was about economics, does the kiddush issue even approach making a dent in that regard?

And not to belabor the point, maybe too late for that, but kiddush bemakom seudah is a derabbanon, kiddush Friday night is, according to almost everyone, a deorisa. Some poskim even favor this minhag since kiddush is meant to be made as close to the entrance of shabbos as possible. Your position of brocha levatala is taken by many such as Tosafos, Shiltei HaGibborim, and Rav Hai Gaon while the Rashba, the Ran, Rabbeinu Yona and Rav Natronai Gaon provide support, for different reasons, for maintaining the minhag.

Suffice to say, the debate is not a new one and likely not one that will be affected by the few pennies it might save.

Not sure what you’re getting at. Your points are very obviously unrelated to economics. Perhaps you might wish to write a post related to your particular agenda, where it will get the focus you wish for without detracting from the important theme of this one- economics.

Orthonomics- great points about wedding extras, early preschool when not needed, and pricey gifts.

According to Halachah, Kiddush should be made in the same place where the meal will be eaten, Kiddush BeMakom Seudah.

Since no meals are eaten in the synagogue Shabbat nights, there is no reason to have Kiddush there.

Furthermore, reciting a Borei Pri HaGafen and then NOT drinking the wine is a Brachah LeBatalah, or certainly looks like one (Morris Ayin).

I am not tryng to compromise Halachah; I only oppose minhagim that oppose Halachah and/or obvious logic.

It is ironic that I have been accused of opposing Halachah, when the minhagim that I criticized are themselves in opposition to Halachah!

Sincerely,
Nathan

That is the kind of mentality — refusal to compromise on any grounds — that has saved Yiddishkeit from the onslaught of Haskala, Reform, and Conservatism, and which will save it from the new pseudo-Orthodoxy.

And THAT is the kind of mentality — acceptance of compromise on almost any grounds — that has caused the mess secular and Modern Judaism is in.

If someone as great as Rabbi Yaakov Emden did not have the ability to abolish a minhag, do you really think that there is someone alive today that has the ability to do so?

Cherry-picking sources and quotes from Rabbonim (and I am not doubting your sources or the weight of these Rabbonim) doesn’t support your point. You are clearly knowledgable but, I ask you, if you put your skills and efforts into researching sources and Rabbonim who disagree with all of the positions you have taken, wouldn’t that list be equally impressive and, likely more lengthy and weighty?

Your list of ideas seems to be aimed at any rabbinic institution or minhag. This seems to go deeper than economics for you. For example, your idea about making kiddush in shul on Friday night. Let’s say that one in three shuls is making kiddush in shul Friday night. Let’s say the average bottle of wine used for making kiddush in shul is seven dollars. Let’s say the average shul that is making kiddush friday night has 100 members. I would assume that you get eight kiddush cups from a bottle. That means that by refraining from making kiddush in shul Friday night will save that shul aproximately $49 per year. That translates into less than fifty cents per member and less than twenty cents per year per person when including those shuls that don’t make kiddush friday night. Is this a change that’s going to help address the economic issues we are facing?