[Avodah] Lifne iver

[Zev Sero]

On 6/08/2013 10:41 AM, Lisa Liel wrote:
> On 8/6/2013 5:01 AM, Zev Sero wrote:
>> 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.
>
> Isn't that how kitniyot is dealt with?

Kitniyos isn't a macholokes; everyone agrees that it was muttar before
the gezera, and remains muttar for those who never accepted it, but is
assur for those who did, and their descendants.  So it's like wine for
non-nezirim, or terumah for kohanim; there's no machlokes, it's absolutely
muttar for some and absolutely assur for others.

But we're talking about something that is the subject of a dispute.  Some
hold it's muttar for everyone, and some hold it's assur for everyone.  The
true halacha has to be like one of them, but since there's been no final
psak, each side has the right and duty to assume that it is correct, and
to act accordingly.    BH held that BS's marriages were incestuous, and
their children mamzerim; but they acknowledged that they weren't doing it
out of wickedness but because they honestly thought it was the right thing
to do.  So when BS informed them that a particular child was kosher by
their (BH's) standards, they trusted them.   What we're discussing now,
though, is whether they would allow their own mamzerim to marry into BS
(who would hold them to be kosher).  I have never seen that addressed, but
it seems to me that it's unlikely.

-- 
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