[Avodah] Deriving halachah for new situations

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Thu, Nov 26, 2015 at 01:04:38AM -0500, H Lampel via Avodah wrote:
: >And what about cases where the intent isn't specific enough to cover one
: >understanding over the other? How we apply a gemara about nitzotzos or
: >gacheles shel mateches to electrical appliances is unlikely to depend on
: >a detail of Shemu'el's intent -- he likely had nothing in minde relevant.

: No? Don't the poskim decide the law by analyzing what the Talmud's gedarim
: are, and equating to it the essential properties of the modern situation?
: Do you hold that all such discussions by the poskim, and the Amoraim's
: discussions about new situations, in which they are claiming to be
: learning from their predecessors' statements going back to the aerliest
: ones and avoiding kushyas from them, are disingenuous?

Yes, they are deriving implications from established halakhah. But that
doesn't mean that the amora (eg) had our case or something just like it
in mind, that he would have made the same implication if he had been
introduce to the possibility.

There are often many ways to extrapolate from the known situation to
decide new ones.

To illustrate:

If the amora said A is okay and B is assur, and never pictured that
there might be a situation with both A & B, or that neither apply.
A tanna who considers A to be the definitive criterion will reach a
different conclusion than someone who bleieves B is, or for that matter,
one who decides that both A and the absence of B both contribute to
permissability.

Or what if there are middle states that are somewhere between the two
that a rishon would need to decide where the line goes when a case
arises that sits in that range? Different rishonim could analyze the
same statement and extend it to the new situation differently.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "The most prevalent illness of our generation is
micha at aishdas.org        excessive anxiety....  Emunah decreases anxiety:
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