[Avodah] Rules of Psak

[Rich, Joel]

There needs to be some kind of new overarching principle to guide psak,
like the old "minhag rules" or "the Bavli rules".  Unfortunately, in
this post "Rupture and Reconstruction" world, the rule may be becoming
"lomdish chumra rules", which can drive more people away from Torah.

It seems to me that part of the original purpose of AishDas was to
create, on at least an individual level, a consciousness choice of
meta-rules that would describe and drive one's own path in Torah &
mitzvah observance.  If it's so difficult to even define the scope of a
meta-rule, that goal was probably doomed from the start.  It was part of
the reasoning behind the MMGH learning program - to learn enough about
different derachim so as to choose intelligently among meta-rules.  But
learning enough about a derech to even formulate a meta-rule is very
difficult: philosphism, Chasidism (various strains), Lurianism,
Yeshivishim, Modernism - all have different ways of approaching the
rules.

--
jon baker   
==========================================
A few thoughts:
1. People often think it's anivut when they ask someone a question and
are told here is my understanding but CLOR - I tell them it's not
anivut, just honesty since halacha is only partially an algorithmic
system and one needs to be plugged into the current mesora to know the
actual halacha (e.g. how many times if you listen to YUTORAH halacha
lmaaseh shiurim do you hear something like, "so it would seem to be X
but in this case it's Y because we're choshesh for the deah of the R'A
who we usually are not choshesh for even though R'B and R'C hold X")

2. The increase in learning exacerbates the issue since now every psak
is analyzed by more than just the cream of the crop and it's transmitted
instantaneously, the old "if R' X says so, it's good enough for me"
doesn't work as well.

3. Think Deep Blue (chess) - in our desire to (since the time of "the
chemist" (R' Chaim)) raise the science/intellect quotient of Torah, we
may have propounded the idea that it is totally analytic and thus face a
lot of incredulity when we now say , yea but it's all really up to the
moreh horaah.

KT       
THIS MESSAGE IS INTENDED ONLY FOR THE USE OF THE 
ADDRESSEE.  IT MAY CONTAIN PRIVILEGED OR CONFIDENTIAL 
INFORMATION THAT IS EXEMPT FROM DISCLOSURE.  Dissemination, 
distribution or copying of this message by anyone other than the addressee is 
strictly prohibited.  If you received this message in error, please notify us 
immediately by replying: "Received in error" and delete the message.  
Thank you.