[Avodah] New king

[Michael Makovi]

> > When there is a machlokes in Chazal that has halachic implications, we are
> > not entitled to personal opinions.  You can't follow Bais Shammai re Chanuka
> > lights, for example, just because that appeals to you.  You have to follow
> > halachic process and ask shailos etc.
> >
> > --Toby Katz
> > =============

> Kal Vachomer if hazal PASKEN one way does not mean I have to check my >brain at the door and say I like the other way beter, Hazla merely ask us to
> FOLLOW the psak not to "obsequiescently" agree to it.
>
> When I learned Gm'ara as a kid I don't recall any rebbe giving me a hard
> time because I preferred R.Me'ir's svra over his bar plugta even though we
> did NOT pasken like him!
>
> --
> Kol Tuv / Best Regards,
> RabbiRichWolpoe at Gmail.com

Rabbi Wolpoe's approach I would second if I may. I had a discussion
with Rabbi Yaakov Elman at YU on this topic, and he told me quite
simply that basically, Chazal were human and used their best judgment
to decide cases, but there's no guarantee that their judgment was
correct. There's also no guarantee that an Amora understood the Tanna
correctly. Certainly, we trust that Chazal were wise and competent,
but this is not infallibility; even the most respected and learned
posek can still be wrong. Rabbi Eliezer Berkovits following Rabbi
Moshe Shmuel Glasner (Dor Revi'i) both emphasize the subjective human
component of the development of the Oral Law.

See Drashot haRan number 5 and Sefer haChinuch on the mitzvah to do as
the judge in those days in Devarim - both say that the rabbis can err,
but we must follow their error.

The upshot is that while certainly have a chiyuv to do as Chazal say,
there's no obligation to side, in theory/belief, with a particular
psak, drash, or sevarah unless it is explicitly Sinaitic.

An interesting example that comes to mind is in Chullin: everyone
knows from the Chumash m'farshim (inc. Rashi) that Vayikra we were
commanded to eat all our meat as a shelamim, and then in Devarim we
are allowed chullin, nachon? But in Mesechet Chullin, this is a
machloket between Rabbi Yishmael (who holds the opinion just given)
and Rabbi Akiva (who holds that according to Vayikra, in the desert,
we could eat chullin that was stabbed, and in Devarim we are commanded
to shecht our chullin). Now, all the m'farshim follow Rabbi Yishmael,
even though they would follow Rabbi Akiva l'maaseh.

Mikha'el Makovi