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

[Richard Wolpoe]

On 10/24/07, Arie Folger <afolger at aishdas.org > wrote:
>
>
>
> > How can  I answer Rabbi ABC? As a jew in need I request YOUR help!
>
> I believe that the statements of RABC fail on the grounds of a lack of
> respect
> and lack of consideration for individuals who were unquestionably among
> those
> who transmitted the Torah to us.
>
> Let's face it, Judaism is alive, it isn't dug out and suddenly discovered
> in a
> museum. To study halakhah without the highest regard for some of its
> greatest
> transmittors displays a lack of yirat shamayim and is not very sensible,
> either. After all, just like in the aggadeta Hillel showed the candidate
> convert that TSBP is inherently part of Torah, otherwise we wouldn't be
> able
> to definitely identify the meaning of the letters and the language, so,
> too,
> we cannot truly approach TSBP and thus halakhah without the continuous
> tradition PASSING THROUGH Tosafot, as well. What they and BaHaG and the
> Tosefta posited is relevant to our understanding of TSBP.
>
> This does not mean that one could never choose to disagree with one
> shittah
> and choose another shittah. It might even be possible, in some exceptional
> circumstances, to come up with something altogether novel. But our
> positions
> grow out of the common beit midrash of the ba'alei hamessorah.
>
> We should also care to add that if one claims that particular ba'alei
> messorah, especially fairly important ones, were biased, where should he
> stop? Why not posit that the Tannaim and Amoraim were biased, too? How
> about
> some major biblical figures? No, for there to exist any messorah,
> whatsoever,
> we must accept that at least the major players were acting out of concern
> for
> Torah, and not out of mysogynism or whatever other biases they may have
> had.
> This is one of the great differences between us, maaminim benei maaminim,
> and
> Zacharias Fraenkel's historical positivist school of thought, which gave
> birth to C.
>
> KT,
> --
> Arie Folger
> http://www.ariefolger.googlepages.com
>

See a related story on how distrust of Masorah might play out in real life!

Blog: NishmaBlog
Post: The Fascinating History of Ananburg
Link:
http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/2007/05/fascinating-history-of-ananburg.html

I agree with Arie Folger's points. But I am afraid I do not find them
sufficiently convincing to win a debate on the matter

Also, I must confess that my replies to  Zev Sero are similar. It is NOT
that Zev SEro's responses are WRONG, the are just not convincing proof -
[iow they are not dispositive].

FIWIW -  I have approached several prominent Rabbis who are not quite
Gedolim but are  near-GEdolim and they both tell me that Halacha nowadays is
essentially based upon consensus - similar to the Shittos of Beis Yosef and
Rema.

The problem? There are SO many times that a practice taken for granted as
normative gets tossed aside that to make the Shita of consensus as REQUIRED
is itself nearly impossible to normative.

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