[Avodah] Halacha as a System

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Fri, Dec 04, 2015 at 01:10:51PM +0000, Rich, Joel via Avodah wrote:
: Do you view Halacha as a system that seeks a single ultimate original
: truth(or a truth determined prior to a particular point in Jewish history)
: or one focused on a chronologically monotonic historical process (i.e. do
: we care what the Rambam originally thought or only how the baalei mesorah
: understood him through time)? If the latter, is this because this is
: what HKB"H commanded or because the rabbis determined this to be how an
: effective legal system must work?

We have discussed this topic repeatedly.

Eg
http://google.com/search?q=constitutive+accumulative+avodah+site:aishdas.org

That search is based on buzzwords from R/Dr Moshe Halbertal's paradigm,
which I summarize at
http://www.aishdas.org/asp/eilu-vaeilu-part-i
and in
http://www.aishdas.org/asp/halakhah-truth-law
I comment how the Rambam's unique approach to the goals of Judaism
(that its goal is to lead us to metaphysical / theological truth;
Moreh 3:54) that leads to his unique support of an accumulative
model.

But in general, RMH says that

1- The ge'onim typically believed that machloqes is an attempt to remember
what was lost.

2- The Rambam says that new halakhah was built from what was given. So
machloqesin over new laws could be two valid conclusions built from the
process. But, machloqesin over interpretation of existing law are attempts
to remember what was forgotten.

3- Most rishonim say that correct halakhah is defined by what the poseiq
concludes, that this is an authority humans were given.

So, the Rambam would tell you to care what he originally thought,
but according to the majority view, the history of insterpretation of
what he thought is more significant halachically.

And in http://www.aishdas.org/asp/postmodernism-and-mesorah I described
that process as:

    The old way of doing things, from the Enlightenment until the middle
    of the 20th century, was to encounter texts by trying to determine
    the authors original intent....
    ...
    One popular Postmodern school is Deconstructionism. Rather than
    looking look for the meaning the text had to the author, but the
    meaning the text has to the reader. A hyper-correction to the opposite
    extreme. ...
    ...
    Mesorah is a living tradition of a development of ideas. The Oral
    Torah is oral, a dialog across the generations. If we see a quote in
    the gemara from Rav Yochanan, we might be curious about the historical
    intent of Rav Yochanan. But in terms of Torah, important to us than
    what R Yochanans original intent is what R Ashi thought that intent
    was, which in turn can only be understood through the eyes of what
    the Rosh and the Rambam understood R Ashis meaning to be, which in
    turn can only be understood through the eyes of the Shaagas Aryeh
    and R Chaim Brisker.
    
    That is the true meaning, in terms of Torah, of Rav Yoachanans
    statement.
    
    Definitionally, talmud Torah is entering the stream. Not seeing a
    statement as a point to isolate in time and space, but as a being
    within current that runs through history from creation to redemption.
    ...

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             If you won't be better tomorrow
micha at aishdas.org        than you were today,
http://www.aishdas.org   then what need do you have for tomorrow?
Fax: (270) 514-1507              - Rebbe Nachman of Breslov