מעיקר הדין we pasken that only leather shoes are prohibited. However, nowadays, we have shoes that are not made of leather which are as comfortable or more comfortable then leather shoes. Crocs are a good example, I see people wearing them everywhere. Give this, it may very well be that they are prohibited on Tisha B'Av. Leather is not a הלכה למשה מסיני. Leather is prohibited because that is what shoes used to be made of and people did not walk around with non-leather shoes. Today, where people do wear non-leather shoes all over, the din may change because the facts changed.
In any case, there is no question that wearing the same shoes that you wear all week on Tisha B'Av certainly violates the spirit of the din. Not wearing leather shoes is supposed to be an עינוי, you are supposed to feel uncomfortable. If you wear super comfortable non-leather shoes you have defeated the whole purpose of the din. By Aveilus there is supposed to be a kiyum balev, you are supposed to feel something. If you wear your regular shoes there is certainly no kiyum balev.
6 comments:
I wear gym shoes most of the week. If the issue is strictly one of comfort, then perhaps I should not wear (non-leather) gym shoes on Tisha B'av and instead wear my uncomfortable leather dress shoes?
No. There is the halacha and there is the spirit of the halacha. The halacha states that you are not allowed to wear leather shoes, period. See Leather shoes on Tisha B'Av for a possible explanation why). The spirit of teh halacha is that you should wear something that makes you uncomfortable so that you fell the pain. Why not wear slippers or just socks?
While for Tisha B'Av, there is a kiyum balev and one must be sad - this is seemingly not true for Aveilus. See the sugya i nthe second perek of sukka regarding osek b'mitzvha patur min hamitzva on daf 25a and 25b. There are 2 Rashis there which say that there is no mitzva to be sad, rather there are simply actions to be followed. See also the hearos of RYSE who makes this hearaah
RYBS said many times that the ikkar of aveilus is a kiyum b'lev of being sad. I don't know offhand what his source(s) is, I will try to look later.
Intuitively, it seems wrong to wear comfortable normal shoes that happen not to be made from leather. But technically, Chazal did not prohibit it. If you want not to wear these shoes then good for you, but don't try to invent a new prohibition, without precedent in the sources, which would apply to everyone willingly or not.
A number of contemporary poskim say this including RSZA in Halichos Shlomo, R' Sternbuch and others.
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