[Avodah] Sephardi-ism: some food for thought

[Zev Sero]

Chana Luntz wrote:
 
> 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.

I hear what you're saying, but I don't see it, either in that Rashi or
in RYK's post.  All Rashi is saying is that if you want to show that
someone really holds a particular shita, give an example where it leads
him to be mekil, because if the only examples you have are chumrot then
it doesn't prove that he really holds that way.  Maybe he's not sure,
and that's why he's machmir, or maybe there were other reasons that he
didn't want to give a heter, even though he held that one was possible.
But if we find him being mekil then he must really be sure of himself,
because one can't permit something if it's really forbidden.

For instance, when the Chazon Ish paskened like (his understanding of)
the Baal Hamo'or and the Kuzari, his famous telegram said "ichlu bar'vi'i
vetzumu bachamishi"; the reisha is the chidush that shows he really held
that way, and was not just being machmir misafek.  That he was willing to
take on his shoulders that they would eat on the day that rov chachmei
yisrael of that day had paskened was Yom Kippur showed how sure he was of
his position.  Similarly, in his letter to R Avrohom Chaim Noeh about his
position on shiurim he admits that he has no real proof, but "libi omer
li" that he is correct, and he would pasken that way "afilu lehatir eshet
ish".  IOW if a man were to throw a get to his wife, and it were to land
within four CI-amot of her, the CI would allow her to remarry.  That's
the koach dehetera that he found to demonstrate how strongly he held his
position.


-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas