[Avodah] Lifne iver

[Zev Sero]

On 5/08/2013 9:35 PM, Eli Turkel wrote:
> ROY paskens that an Ashkenazi can eat nonglatt meat while a sefardi
> cannot. He obviously does not feel he violates life over by allowing
> an Ashkenazi to eat nonglatt.

There's nothing obvious about it.  Does he permit giving nonglatt meat to
an Ashkenazi?    (Actually ROY may not be the best example, since AIUI he
holds that bish'at hadechak even a Sefardi can rely on the Rama to eat
non-glatt, which means he doesn't really pasken that it's treif, he's just
being machmir.  Our discussion is in a case where one really holds that
the thing in question is assur, e.g. the stomach fats that Rhinelanders ate,
or the mamzerim that Beit Shamai permitted.


> Elu velu means each one follows his own community. The gemara has many'
> such stories

Please cite a few stories from the gemara where someone, holding that something
was assur, nevertheless *approved* of someone else, whose rebbe permitted it,
doing so.   That is different from *acknowledging* that there are differences
of opinion.  The gemara is full of such acknowledgements, but I can't remember
any case where someone says "it's assur for us but muttar for them".  Something
is either assur or muttar; it can't be both.  If it's assur, then those who
permit it are mistaken.  Their opinion may be divrei Elokim chayim, i.e. it
reflects one aspect of the Divine Will, but they're mistaken in applying it
to the practical level, where only one psak is possible.  They're *entitled*
to their mistake, because they have no reason to believe it *is* one, but
it's still (in our opinion) a mistake.

At least, that's one side of what we're discussing.  If you have evidence
that the halacha is really relative, that for someone who holds something
is muttar it's really muttar, please cite it.  But realise what it is that
you're saying: that one may give ones chelev to a Rhinelander, that one may
marry off ones mamzer to a Beis-Shammai family, that on Friday after sunset
one who holds like the geonim may nevertheless help someone who holds Layla
deRabbenu Tam to do melacha, and on Erev Yom Kippur after sunset one may
give him food.


> Bottom life if an Ashkenazi asks a question from a sefardi rav (or
> vice versa) the rav has to answer according to the questioners
> halachot not his own

Sure, because that's what the person is asking for.  He's not asking what
do *you* hold, he's asking you what would *his* rebbe hold.  That you think
his rebbe is mistaken doesn't change that.  You answer "given your rebbe's
premises, here is how I think he would pasken".   Cf Rabban Gamliel's sons
asking him what the Chachamim would hold.


-- 
Zev Sero               A citizen may not be required to offer a 'good and
zev at sero.name          substantial reason' why he should be permitted to
                        exercise his rights. The right's existence is all
                        the reason he needs.
                            - Judge Benson E. Legg, Woollard v. Sheridan