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

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Nov 05, 2007 at 08:05:24PM -0400, Richard Wolpoe wrote:
: And the aforementioned Rabbi ABC posits that:
...
: IOW - why use Davka THIS Tosefta to overrule THIS Bavli unless one has an
: inner prejudice that cause a special selectivity to take place?

Or a value to seeing what the people do, and presuming the practice got
started because of an alternate shitah?

If one wants to get Agusian, the entire minhag Ashkenaz has to be
studied this way. You can't simply point to a Bavli if a large chunk of
kelal Yisrael still follow a mesorah no less authoritative than it, but
not as centrally documented.

Presumed is this all-or-nothing "Bavli trumps Tosefta", which I would
object to as being fundamentally the wrong model.

(I'm also considering whether the notion that the rules are "fuzzy
logic" rather than boolean is why the SA has exceptions to relying on
his triumverate.)

I fail to see the da mah lehashiv in addressing his accusation
of prejudice (in the case you brought of women leining megillah:
misogyny?) . The question only exists because his postulates are off.
There are other motivations. Just because /he/ thinks they aren't valid
doesn't mean I wouldn't use them.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             The mind is a wonderful organ
micha at aishdas.org        for justifying decisions
http://www.aishdas.org   the heart already reached.
Fax: (270) 514-1507