[Avodah] Hypocrisy in halakhah

[Rich, Joel]

On Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 11:17:48PM +0200, Michael Makovi wrote:
: Similarly, Rabbi Dr. David Berger in an essay on the Egalitarian
: Ethos, suggests that at the Christian Disputations, we realized that
: even though the Christians were certainly racist, we were not entirely
: innocent of that charge ourselves. We realized we had to look at our
: own texts in their eyes, and ask ourselves how we'd feel had their
: laws said the equivalent of what ours say...

:                We cannot simply overturn the halakhah, but we can
: creatively tweak it to suite our interests according to our own
: understanding of the Torah's ethos....

The phrase "our understanding of the Torah's ethos" isn't the same thing
as claims that it was in response to not liking the racism we saw in the
mirror of that expressed against us. You're again teetering very close
to Historical School.

I have a very strong feeling you misunderstood RDB, as he is quite
conservative WRT halakhah. I shall be"H ask him.

You do what halakhah tells you to do. If it seems unfair, such as the
patient who hopes and tries to receive an organ from a pool to which one
is not permitted to donate (assuming that is halakhah, CYLOR), then it's
a matter of learning how one's instincts are wrong. Not simply ch"v
rewriting din in response to prevailing moral zeitgeist.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha
==========================================
I think we've been down this road a number of times before. The
statement "You do what halakhah tells you to do" is true but not
complete since a posek has to decide what the halacha is and there is
not an algorithm that gives one and only one answer irrespective of who
is asked to give the psak.  In fact it is the "instincts" (lev shel
torah etc.) that we rely on.  

Question: What was the driving force behind the takkana of rabbeinu
gershom on monogamy?

KT
Joel Rich
THIS MESSAGE IS INTENDED ONLY FOR THE USE OF THE 
ADDRESSEE.  IT MAY CONTAIN PRIVILEGED OR CONFIDENTIAL 
INFORMATION THAT IS EXEMPT FROM DISCLOSURE.  Dissemination, 
distribution or copying of this message by anyone other than the addressee is 
strictly prohibited.  If you received this message in error, please notify us 
immediately by replying: "Received in error" and delete the message.  
Thank you.