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

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, November 6, 2007 9:07 am, Rich, Joel wrote:
: IMVHO you can't say the guy is wrong on any other basis than he is not
: recognized as one of the chachmei hamesora - it seems we have a self
: perpetuating subjective system which allows for "votes" of
: indeterminate weighting by both the poskim and the am that accepts
: them...

I am not advocating a free for all. Fuzzy logic still requires the
weightings make sense. Someone who values an obscure acharon who isn't
his own rebbe over shas as expounded by rishonim and backed by minhag
yisrael, or who dismisses eishes ish in order to solve a yerushah
problem, .... The problem is more than voting him out -- such
weighting itself can't be justified.

Also, weighting shitos is only part of it. Much more often we have to
evaluate conflicting desirata. Resolution of machloqes is actually far
more well defined (rov, nisqatnu hadoros, halakhah kevasra'i, etc...)
than applying theoretical conclusions to a case that each seems to
force a different response.

BTW, for a nice outline of some of these kelalim, see
<http://www.mucjs.org/Consensus.pdf>. I am not endorsing every last
conclusion, just having a point to start arguing from is nice. But the
citations seem solid, so far.

SheTir'u baTov!
-micha

-- 
Micha Berger             One who kills his inclination is as though he
micha at aishdas.org        brought an offering. But to bring an offering,
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Fax: (270) 514-1507      parts to offer.        - R' Simcha Zissel Ziv