[Avodah] ikkarim redux

[Moshe Yehuda Gluck]

R' MB:
YOu say "yes" and then miscast what I said. I'm talking about pesaq.
Halachically speaking, they enjoy an acceptance. It's what most poseqim rely
upon.
R' MS:
I am arguing that the acceptance is more sociological than halachic - the
basis of it is more that everyone in our community clearly accepts it and
there is no controversy - rather than an actual halachic argument - and the
transmutation of sociology into psak is a real problem. (it isn't far
different than psaks about wearing hats.....- but there at least, there do
exist psakim arguing for a real basis...) 


To possibly add a different perspective, it seems to me that perhaps the
issue of minhag can be added to the mix. In other words, what is the minhag
of the majority of Klal Yisrael when it comes to Ikkarei HaDas? Well, just
about every siddur for hundreds of years included Yigdal and the 13 Ani
Maamins. If so, as far as the psak of minhag is concerned, the 13 ikkarim
are accepted as psak. (Risking R' SM's wrath :-) I'll share something a
posek told me. He asked a major contemporary posek (MCP) what the minhag by
a certain aspect of Hilchos vestos was, and the MCP answered that it was
whatever was printed in the Yiddish pages of the (IIRC) Korban Mincha Siddur
that discussed Hilchos Niddah. As all Jewish women used to use that as their
Hilchos Niddah primer, that was the minhag.)

KT,
MYG

P.S. In a similar vein, it can perhaps be argued that the Artscroll Siddur
is Kove'a the minhag today. (Not said in the spirit of Purim.)