[Avodah] Kosher Turkey and Women Rabbis and Mesorah

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Fri, Nov 27, 2015 at 11:23:06AM +0200, Ben Waxman via Avodah wrote:
: http://attemptsatjewishthought.com/home/if-you-eat-kosher-turkey-you-probably-support-female-orthodox-clergy
: 
...
: Yet by R. Kluger's time, and certainly in our own, the majority of
: Orthodox Jews eat turkey.  How? Because Rabbinic leadership is
: entirely capable of resolving a seeming gap between tradition and
: innovation...

When it's the right kind of gap. This kind of specious reasoning is only
possbible if you ignore the legal details of each case.

Kind of like the old: If they could put a person on the moon, why
haven't they cured cancer yet?

The bigger problem is that they have not listened to what RYBS and RHS
mean when they use the word mesorah. It does not equal "chadash assur min
haTorah". In fact, it's a little strange to think people would believe
RYBS promoted a policy of non-change; it doesn't fit the basics of his
biography and CV. So why twould someone feel a need to prove that
change is possible by pointing to another one.

And if you realy want to point to change, there is a close parallel.
In Chazal's day, woment weren't allowed in shul, except perhaps long
enough to say qaddish or bench gomel. Or if needed for leining.
Mechitzah is a feminist innovation from the geonic era.

But I presume RHS would argue it came from the big names of the day.
Those who know halachic grammar intuitively enough to know when to take
poetic license. To the extent that you only know the rule of grammar as
rules, you are forced into a certain rigidty -- or risk saying things
that sound unacceptable to the native speaker.

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where
micha at aishdas.org        you are,  or what you are doing,  that makes you
http://www.aishdas.org   happy or unhappy. It's what you think about.
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