[Avodah] Sephardi-ism: some food for thought

[Chana Luntz]

RMB writes:

> Kochah deheteirah adif is not "it's better to be meiqil". This was
> discussed numerous times on Avodah. It means that since heter requires
> a greater burden of proof, its existence carries more weight in further
> decisions.
> 
> RYK characterizes it somewhat differently in
> <http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol07/v07n021.shtml#17>:
> > The term "Koach di'hetera adifa" is a pedagogic term, not a legal one.
> > It is used by chazal EXCLUSIVELY to mean that when a dispute between two
> > authorities applies to two different applications, one in which the kula
> > is the bigger chidush, and the other in which the chumrah is the bigger
> > chidush, and the statement can be taught in one of two ways, one
> > emphasizing the kula and the other emphasizing the chumra, we are always
> > taught the case where the kula is the bigger chidush. See Berachos 60a
> > and Beitzah 2b.
> > This is because it is a bigger chidush to teach the lenient ruling than
> > the strict ruling. (Se Rashi to Beitzah ad loc.)
> 
> I'm not sure we diagree, but I'm not sure we don't -- so I gave both.

I think you are missing the argument (RYK's comment was made in a different
context, of which I am not sure of the details).

The Rashi on Beitza cited by RYK says that it is better to teach the kula
"shehakol yochlin l'hachmir v'afilu b'dvar mutar".

That is, every Tom, Dick or Yankel is able to be machmir and assur, whether
or not the thing is in fact mutar.

That being the case, we don't need a great posek to tell us something is
assur, we can all manage to do this ourselves.  What we do need a great
posek for is to teach us what is mutar, because that we might not be able to
work out ourselves.

Thus, one of the fundamental roles of a great posek is to teach the kulos
(just as, on the same principle, the gemora preferred to teach the kulos
rather than the chumros when faced with a direct choice).  You should
therefore expect that the halachic teachings of a posek, which are found in
his written teshuvos, would be replete with kulos rather than chumros.  In
other words, one of the primary purposes of writing such teshuvos is koach
d'hetera adif, to make known the kulos, because they are the bigger
chiddushim and need to be taught.

So it is not that it is "better to be meikil", but rather that being machmir
will come by itself, while, being meikil is something that one needs to be
educated to do, and requires effort.  That being the case, however, if one
wants to encompass the truth of Torah, that does logically mean that one may
need to work a bit harder and seek out the kulos - and thus in this sense,
koach d'hetera adif operates to teach us the value in focusing on kulos
rather than chumros.

> Tir'u baTov!
> -Micha

Regards

Chana