[Avodah] Some thoughts on Shemonah Perakim

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Nov 06, 2008 at 10:38:56PM -0500, Yitzhak Grossman pointed us to
<http://bdl.freehostia.com/2008/11/06/two-chief-rabbis-on-rabbinic-wills-and-halachic-ways/> (<http://tinyurl.com/5sl3hy>) from the blog "Bein Din Ladin":
: At first blush, Rav Uziel's eloquent but rigid insistence on Halachic purism
: is difficult; the axiology of Halachah clearly allows for, and sometimes
: even insists on, the influence of the practical consequences of a decision
: in general, and compassion for the desperate straits of a petitioner in
: particular, on the decision making process...

I happened to sit on this post for a while because I had a lack of time
before last weekend's "Mussar Kallah". However, it's interesting that
the teshuvah in discussion is an example of R' Uzziel violating the
principle Prof Zohar ascribes to him. He argues against any concept
of giving weight to a position because it's a qulah.

About the title of the post... "Two Chief Rabbis On Rabbinic Wills
And Halachic Ways" This is somewhat misleeding. The idiom it refers to
was coined by someone who wanted to imply that there is always a way,
when there is will. His discussion is of whether rabbinic will should
be to seek a way to push deadbeat dads to supporting their children. Not
whether such seeking must perforce succeed.

There are cases (as I recently noted WRT eiruv), where there are explict
exceptions spelled out by Chazal. Such as an agundah derabanan, eg a
usual case of mei'ever layam. So this:
: Rav Shlomoh Yosef Zevin's analysis of Rav Yitzhak Elhanan Spektor's character
: and its impact on his Agunah decisions:
doesn't LAD seem to speak to the general rule. Rather, Chazal weren't
gozerin in a way that maximized pain on women. And therefore one needn't
find a resolution between that and R' Uzziel's point, R' Zevin's analysis
is about one of the few exceptional cases.

The blogger's distinction between BALM and BALC, that R' Uzziel would
seek qulah in the former but not in cases of "vedal lo sehader berivo",
"ein merachamim badin", is unconvincing. It doesn't fit the quoted words,
where R' Uzziel waxes on at length about the job of the Sanhedrin and
subsequent poseqim to find amitah shel Torah. Nothing about judging
between people fairly.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             A wise man is careful during the Purim banquet
micha at aishdas.org        about things most people don't watch even on
http://www.aishdas.org   Yom Kippur.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                       - Rabbi Israel Salanter