[Avodah] Sephardi-ism: some food for thought

[Chana Luntz]

RMP notes:

> RMM echoed R'Micha:
> > I agree with R' Micha that Sefaradim seem to rely on
> majority-vote...whereas Ashkenazim rely on sevara.... <

Eek.  I know that ROY dominates Sephardi psak these days, and this is often
said about him  - although I confess I think people are often confusing the
fact that he indeed lists pretty much every opinion ever stated (which
unquestionably he does) and takes them seriously, with number crunching.  I
think if you really read his teshuvos you see they are a lot more
sophisticated than that.  But he certainly canvasses all opinions and is
prepared to rule against some of those he quotes.

And I guess if you go back in time, the Shulchan Aruch (himself a Sephardi)
does say this about himself in that that he decides by majority vote between
the Rif, the Rambam and the Rosh.  

But still I think this is a huge generalisation.  I can't say I am an expert
on the Ben Ish Chai, but what I have read does not come across that way at
all (if anything he is very very influenced by Kabbalistic considerations,
which the majority do not necessarily take into account).  Nor does he cite
encyclopaedically like ROY does.  Much more like the Ashkenazi poskim, he
will often cite one or two opinions (the Chida is influential, in what I
have come across, but you periodically get citations to all sorts of other
poskim, half the time, Ashkenazi) and that is it.  But you will get told to
do all sorts of things (or do them in a certain way) that are clearly
sourced in kabbalistic concerns, without it being exactly clear (at least if
you are as unlearned in kabbala as I am) on what precisely the concerns are
based.  Where the kabbala does not come into it, there seems to be a
reasonable amount of svara, from the little I have learnt.

I have had even less exposure to the Morrocan poskim (who seem from what I
can tell to form quite a different stream), but again I don't think they are
like that at all.  They seem more capable of ignoring Ashkenazi psak from
what I can tell (whereas ROY quotes zillions of Ashkenazim, some of whom
most Ashkenazim have probably never heard of).

> Where does the MB fit into this dichotomy?

Well if you are going on stereotypes, then the stereotype of the MB is that
he neither poskens based on sevara nor relies on majority vote, but tries to
go l'chumra for all shittos (ie let's try and devise a way to keep everybody
happy, whereas ROY is more prepared to have "winners" and "losers" and RMF,
if you want a svara based approach, generally doesn't see the need to
mention other people's approaches to the problem, certainly if they are any
later than the Rishonim).

> All the best from
> --Michael Poppers via RIM pager

Regards

Chana