[Avodah] R' Berkovits = Conservative halacha??

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Apr 02, 2008 at 11:39:57PM -0400, Richard Wolpoe wrote:
: It is quite clear to me that [aftere reading the bio of Rabbiner Hirsch]that
: RSR Hirsch would NOT buy any sort of cognitive dissonance and I would
: venture the GRA [and perhaps Rambam] would never accomodate this dichotomy
: between theory and practice...

I don't know. Didn't the Gra tell his talmidim to follow minhag avos
and not change practice based on his shitos? E.g. didn't they say Barukh
H' leOlam in his shul? (Of course, once he was niftar, things
changed...)

Add the MB to the list. As retold here ad nauseum, the text didn't
always match the CC's practice. Most famously (and seasonal) is R'
Zacks's inability to use his grandfather's kos for the seider, as it's
not large enough according to the MB.

...
: I think R. Berkovits had a point though. Halachah is SO far removed from its
: orgins that some flexibility seems reasonable.

But so is our culture. "Torah values" are harder to objectively assess,
and so distance from the source is more of an issue there than in sevara.
It actually justifies more formality of legal process, not less.

But REB's change is different in kind than the examples at the head
of your post. There are two alternatives to keeping halakhah as per
mimetics, not one: there are the Torah values that underlie the halakhah
and the relative strength/appeal of the textual arguments.

The textualist is changing the norm based on the latter; REB is advocating
doing more of the former.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Our greatest fear is not that we're inadequate,
micha at aishdas.org        Our greatest fear is that we're powerful
http://www.aishdas.org   beyond measure
Fax: (270) 514-1507                        - Anonymous