[Avodah] chumrot of sefardim

[Ken Bloom]

Gershon Dubin wrote:
> > The resultant Q is whether the guest should take a chance on
> > insulting rather than definitely follow the Halachah of his host,
> > and, again, I would think he should not take such a chance and only
> > follow his own Halachah if he knows the host will be OK with his
> > actions. 
> > Perhaps the Chevra can pitch in with any SHuT, either from ROY or
> > from another poseiq who holds similar views re "sweet challot," that
> > deal with the bein
> > adam lachaveiro aspect of being an orach
>
> I don't understand why the Rama in Yoreh Deah 112:15 is not pertinent
> here. It would seem from there that with pas specifically one has an
> obligation to avoid ketata even at the cost of sacrificing his
> personal chumrah. 

Because the Rema isn't relevant to Sepharadi psak in the same way as he 
is to Ashkenazi psak. While Ashkenazim follow him as the basis for 
their halacha, Sepharadim follow the Maran. While we do look at the 
Rema, the focus is to better understand the parameters of what the 
Maran is saying, not to dictate the practice of the Sepharadim. (And 
ROY follows the Rema less than some other Sepharadi poskim do.)


On Friday 11 May 2007 02:09:29 am Minden wrote:
> RET wrote:
> > I assume that means that according to him a Sefardi who hears
> > kiddush friday night from an Ashkenazi is not yotzeh with most
> > wines and grape juices on the market.
>
> I don't understand this and other cases where minnek and heloche
> aren't distinguished. Often, the catch is one of focalisation (
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focalization ), I suppose.
>
> Either (you assume) the din is this wine won't do. In that case, the
> Ashkenazzi isn't youtze either.
>
> Or (you assume) the din allows it, only a regional chumre or
> otherwise minnek says not to. In that case the Seforaddi/Mizrahi is
> youtze, too, at least bedieved. Even lechatchile, there are aspects
> like honouring another in general and a host in particular that might
> override menogem and chumres.
>
> Or you have a sofek what the din is, then it depends on the exact
> details and the Rules of the Art of Sfeikes, but there's certainly no
> difference in din for Jews whose ancestors happened to live in Spain
> and Iraq vs Germany, is there?

You assume that there's one law, but even with American law that's not 
the case.

Here in the USA, we have 9 circuit courts of appeals that each handle 
cases and set precedents for various regions of the country. Sometimes 
the precedents can be different (or even opposite) between different 
circuits. The circuits have to all agree when the Supreme Court has set 
a precedent, because otherwise the Supreme Court will overturn rulings 
from the lower courts, but where the Supreme Court hasn't set a 
precedent the judges in the circuit courts enforce their own precedents 
on the district courts through the same mechanism.

Halacha is similar. The halacha is not a theoretical law that we're 
trying to find through application of certain reasoning techniques, 
it's a real legal system decided by people, who have different spheres 
of influence. The Gemara is a single unified precedent, but even in the 
Shulchan Aruch, we have two different "circuits" with two legal 
precedents binding on two different constituencies.

--Ken Bloom


-- 
Ken Bloom. PhD candidate. Linguistic Cognition Laboratory.
Department of Computer Science. Illinois Institute of Technology.
http://www.iit.edu/~kbloom1/
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