[Avodah] FW: R Tzadok-TSBP

[David Riceman]

Michael Makovi wrote:
> Professor Shapiro, ibid., does note at length that Rabbi Haim
> Soloveitchik was reticent [sic] to pasken, directing people to the dayan of
> Volozhin for practical questions.
You mean Brisk.  See R. Zevin's book, Ishim V'Sheetos, pp. 62 ff.
>  Rabbi Haim was sure that his
> hiddushim were true and correct, but he couldn't bring himself to
> practically rule that way, against the SA in favor of a novel ruling
> of the Rambam's or a novel reading of the Gemara. Faced with the
> conflict, he simply chose not to pasken anything.
>   
This is an exaggeration (ibid.)
> So if Rabbi Haim was a post-modernist deconstructionist, then rest
> easy: he was NOT a poseiq.
>
> Personally, this makes my stomach turn, with all due respect to Rabbi
> Haim. I cannot imagine the value of learning that does not lead to
> practical halakhah.
The French say "the stomach has its reasons that the heartburn knows 
not"; I'm not sure how to argue with a stomach.  Nonetheless, to the 
extent that your mind is entrained with your stomach, it is important to 
realize that R. Haim's position has much to commend it.  Several list 
members are students of students of R. Haim, so I ought to leave them to 
respond.  Nonetheless I'll make a few points:

1. R. Haim was a town Rabbi and a Rosh Yeshiva.  He held (cited 
somewhere in Ish HaHalacha) that the primary function of a town Rabbi 
was to protect the downtrodden.  Paskening is not, according to him, in 
either job description.  It seems clear that he paskened for himself and 
his immediate family.

2.  R. Haim had a minimalist position about the authority of custom and 
of post-Talmudic decrees (see the story about deregistering 
non-circumsized children in Ish Hahalacha).  Again this is undesireable 
in a town posek (especially a town with old established customs like Brisk).

3.  The Mishna Berura is another example of a prominent halachic book 
which displays reluctance to pasken.  I probably shouldn't even mention 
theoretical works like the Minhath Hinuch.  R. Haim's position is hardly 
unique.  Your's is.

4.  This Shabbos we'll read about Korah and last week we read about the 
meraglim (you'll have read them one week earlier); these are hardly 
explicit examples of unsullied practical halacha.  Ben Sorer Umoreh and 
Ir Hanidachas are more extreme examples.  I hope you can restrain your 
nausea when you attend shul.

5.  Your own stated interest in Jewish philosophy is hardly consonant 
with your stomach's biases.

Incidentally you use of "deconstruction" is different than the use I'm 
familiar with.  Would you care to define the term?

David Riceman