[Avodah] Sephardi-ism: some food for thought

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 08:19:11PM +0200, Michael Makovi wrote:
: http://tinyurl.com/RabbiUziel
...
: http://www.edah.org/backend/JournalArticle/1_2_zohar.pdf

: This is a (short four page) review by Professor Zvi Zohar, of a book
: about Rabbi Benzion Uziel, in turn written by Rabbi Marc D. Angel.

Wow, how many mischaracterizations can an author pack into one article?

: Professor Zohar makes a paradigm of Sephardi halakhah and hashkafa as
: opposed to Ashkenazi. Ashkenazi pesak relies on "kol ha-mahmir tavo
: alav berakhah" and "hadash asur min haTorah", whereas Sephardi pesak
: has no such concept of "hadash" and holds by "koha de-hetera adif".

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.

In either case, the assumption in the gemara's usage is quite the
reverse -- qulah is the greater rarity.


Chadash assur min haTorah is the motto of one particular flavor of O that
flourished in Hungary. Somehow, though, RSRH's community has the same
system of pesaq as they -- despite their embracing chadash. And it was a
statement about not changing culture, totally outside of issues of pesaq.

The prohibition against overturning precedent requires believing that
we are gadol meihem bechokhmah uveminyan. What happens more frequently
is the question of whether the facts on the ground changed enough to
warrant new pesaq.

Frankly the thing reads like someone trying to claim Seph for C... These
are all arguments I've seen typed by a C rabbi on scjm, in describing
pre-R halakhah vs post-R Orthodoxy, to claim that we, not they, are the
invention.

If you really want to look at real difference in process, ROY tends to
use rules like majority much more heavily, whereas the bigger Ashkenazi
poseqim leverage the few more accepted authorities by applying personal
sevara.

: As for hashkafah, Professor Zohar quotes words of Rabbi Uziel's
: regarding universalism of knowledge and learning and universalism of
: Jewish mission, that to me sound remarkably Hirschian (IMHO), and
: Professor Zohar notes that such sentiments are common amongst
: Sephardim but not amongst Ashkenazim.

I think it depends on how many generations it has been since the
particular Ashk or Seph subcommunity lived under a hostile regime. But
that's more for Areivim. (And again, see TIDE.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

CC: former regular RYKaganoff

-- 
Micha Berger             Weeds are flowers too
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