[Avodah] Sephardi-ism: some food for thought

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 06:46:01PM +0200, Michael Makovi wrote:
: R' Micha has noted that "koha d'heitera adif" means only that a
: heter/qula is a greater hidush, not that it is preferable.

: But I content this is not inconsistent with the opinion of some
: (Zohar? R' Uziel? R' Ovadia Yosef?) that a kula is to be preferred,
: assuming it has solid basis....

Find them actually saying it, and then you have an argument. ROY does
not -- his system is so heavily "acharei rabim lehatos" that he rarely
needs to rely on other rules.

Actually, the nearest -- within mainstream O -- to what you're talking
about is when halachic process fails, we treat the question as a safeiq,
and if it's derabbanan, we can invoke safeiq derabbanan lequlah.


: And of course, everyone has the right to reuse an old adage in a new
: way...

No, only people who can prove the new point using real sources.
Otherwise, they are simply pulling something out of their own hats and
hiding the novelty of their innovation behind familiar words.

: I agree with R' Micha that Sefaradim seem to rely on majority-vote and
: clear-cut decision-making (apex - R' Ovadia Yosef - Professor Marc B.
: Shapiro analyzes R' Ovadia Yosef's pesaq in Edah), whereas Ashkenazim
: rely on sevara (my rabbi notes that one can read pages of  Rav Moshe
: Feinstein without seeing a single mequor) This difference, according
: to Rabbi Steinsaltz, dates back to Rif and Rabbenu Hananel et. al.
: versus Tosafot et. al.

Isn't that at odds with what Prof Zohar asserted? Doesn't this make it
obvious that this whole C-like vision of Sepharad-ism is simply wrong?

: R' Micha notes that even though R' Hirsch did not hold by "Chadash
: assur min haTorah", nevertheless the Hirschians have the same pesaq
: method as the Hungarians. But I'll object:
: 1) I'm not sure how much we can point to KAJ as epitomes of Hirschianism

So, read RSRH's own teshuvos in Shemesh Merapei.

: 2) Chadash assur min haTorah has more implications for sociology and
: culture and hashkafa than halakhah, I think...
:                            and Zohar's claim would stand that Rabbi
: Uziel's Sefaradi perspective is very different than the Eastern
: European one, and more like the Hirschian one IMHO.

Except that he failed to convince me that R' Uziel actually had this
perspective, and your assumptions about RSRH's style of pesaq is simply
wrong.

Bottom line -- you repeatedly push models of pesaq that simply aren't
normative O and (or: because) they stand on shakey if existent legs.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Strength does not come from winning. Your
micha at aishdas.org        struggles develop your strength When you go
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