[Avodah] Just what ARE the rules of p'sak anyway?

[Richard Wolpoe]

On 10/23/07, T613K at aol.com <T613K at aol.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> Even when two poskim disagree on a given psak, they do not choose from an
> infinite array of subjectively chosen possibilities when they arrive at
> their respective decisions, but from an allowable range which is distinctly
> finite and bound by known rules.
>
> You can play a hundred games of chess, according to the rules of chess,
> and from the same initial setup you can arrive at a hundred different final
> chessboard arrangements, but all of them will be derivable from the same
> rules.  A chess player can glance at the final chessboard and tell you
> instantly that in one case, the final board was not a possible outcome of
> the rules of chess and that his three-year-old must have put pieces on the
> board after the game was over.  (The three-year-old in my analogy is a
> Reform or Conservative rabbi who isn't happy with the allowable range of
> chess moves and doesn't really care how he gets to the final board as long
> as he likes the way it looks.)
>
>
> *--Toby Katz
> =============*
>

I have a bitter fed with a colleague of mine - let's call him Rabbi ABC.
Regarding the issue of women and kerias Megillah Rabbi ABC posits the
following:

   1. The Tosefta in the place of a conflicting Bavli is NOTHING
   2. The Bahag and Tosafos use the Tosefta to override the the Bavli in
   ARachin 3-4 that permits women to read megillah for men. [af hein hayu b'oso
   haneis ipmlies that like ner Hanukkah, they can do Negillah]
   3. Ergo  Behag and Tsoafos themselves are NOT playing by the rules of
   Halacha themselves
   4. And therefore they really are not doing Halachah, but playing
   games  C"V
   5. And [to add insult to insult] they are pursuing a consistently
   misogynist agenda

let's recap:
He claims that the Bavli trumps all and THAT is a rule of pesak:

   1. is that a fact?  is the Bavli the final arbiter of pesak?
   2. Or is the the decisiveness of the Bavli a matter of debate?
   3. are there sources to prove one side or the other? [believe me I am
   looking at this ll the time?

Toby claims that R&C rabbis decide the issue first and find support in texts
that suits their agenda.  But Rabbi ABC posits that Behag, Toafos and many
Orthodox rabbis do this frequently, too. That a decision is mad on some
agenda and sources are mustered to make the argument plausible, or cogent
post facto.  First comes a minhag afterwards come the rationale.

How can  I answer Rabbi ABC? As a jew in need I request YOUR help!

Disclaimer: I do not consider Rabbi ABC an honest broker of the facts of how
Halachah works. But in the interest of da mah lehashiv, I need something
that can be "makheh es shinav".



-- 
Kol Tuv / Best Regards,
RabbiRichWolpoe at Gmail.com
Please Visit:
http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/
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