[Avodah] Nationwide Kashrus Gathering on Worms in Fish

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, May 26, 2010 at 12:04:15PM -0400, Rich, Joel wrote:
: IIRC when we discussed this last, the most common position was to rely
: on mtziut when it was lchumrah but not lkulah

I don't think so. I think the most common position is to deal with
the issue casewise. You have to determin if the scientific explanation
caused the pesaq, or was an after-the-fact explanation. And it also is
possible that the science that caused the pesaq is wrong, but you can
find a way in which the error isn't relevent. (My oft-repeated example
of Rav Dovid Lifshitz's approach to beitzei kinim.) Notice the second
point presumes a preference not to change pesaq, as one is hunting for
a way to fit existing pesaq to new science.

Only AFTER the above two searches find that the scientific theory caused
the pesaq and a sevara for existing pesaq can't be built from current
theory, would you apply the above rule.

The kelal is given by the Gra. His sevara is that for every reason we
are given for a particular din, there could be (and usually are) many
other reasons. Thus, eliminating the one published reason lehachmir
doesn't rule out the existence of other sufficient reasons. However,
eliminating one reason lehaqeil makes the existance of other reasons moot.

With the caveat that safeiq piquach nefesh may shift "lechumrah" to a
possibly non-obvious definition. (I'm thinking of 8th month babies.)

See RGS's essay at <http://www.aishdas.org/toratemet/science.html>
for a survey.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "The worst thing that can happen to a
micha at aishdas.org        person is to remain asleep and untamed."
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