[Avodah] Hypocrisy in halakhah

[Michael Makovi]

I thank R' Micha for pointing out my Historical School viewpoint,
which may not accord with Rabbi Dr. David Berger's intent. I look
forward to his clarifying with Rabbi Berger himself.

But I was not striving for an accurate presentation of Rabbi Berger
per se's position; I was using him as a paradigm.

Now, as for my halakhic explanation: however one explains it, whether
by Berkovits-ian philosophy or not, I believe it clear, as Rabbi
Berger himself notes, that when one rejects the entire history of
Rishonim on the subject, and selects Meiri against them all, this is a
violation of the classical halakhic system, and special motivations
are at work. Rabbi Berger himself suggests that the rabbis he adduces
as supporting Meiri did so because even though it violates the
classical halakhic method, they saw it as according most closely with
the Torah's own ethos. Rabbi Berger says this explicitly.

He even notes that one authority (Rabbi Henkin I believe, but I forget
whether the elder or the younger) even built a shita on Biblical
verses; Rabbi Berger notes that something unusual is at work when a
posek paskens on humash.

Mikha'el Makovi