[Avodah] mechitza

[Rich, Joel]

Can someone please help me understand how halacha can change so
radically?

I can understand how, over time, View A might shift from being held by
only 5% of Am Yisrael to 95%, while View B becomes less popular,
shifting from 95% popularity to 5%. This can happen when a person who
was a mere talmid of a View A community when he was young, became a
major teacher later on.

That's how I understand the shifts between Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel,
or the shift from Shabbos starting when it gets dark to Shabbos starting
when the sun goes below the horizon. In these cases, the different views
were *both* pre-existing, only their popularity shifted.


Akiva Miller

================================================================
Please say more on this - how did it go from 95 to 5? Was it that poskim
were eventually won over by something that earlier poskim missed?  That
there were practical reasons (e.g. getting to the movies :-)) that
pressured poskim? That people just started doing it?.....  I've asked
this question of a number of individuals who imho are "bar hachis" but
never heard a real answer (other than each circumstance is likely
different) but I've always thought that they know the answer but it's
not for publication because it may be misused by those who are not bar
hachis (like me)
KT
Joel Rich
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