[Avodah] WTG

[T613K at aol.com]

In  Avodah Digest, Vol 25, Issue 124 dated 4/4/2008 "Stadlan, Noam"  
<nstadlan at cinn.org>
writes:


>>If a posek decides that the motivation of a shoel is wrong,  he can decide
all the halachic issues to the side of denying the shoel  permission to do
the act.  ....  Rav Gil Student, in  his
review of Rav Herschel Schachter's view's on WTG basically admits that  RHS
consistently rules l'chumra on all the issues precisely because RHS  was
against the WTG.  The rulings on the halachic issues were a result  of a
prior decision regarding the WTG, not the other way around.  To  quote Rav
Gil, in his intro to RHS's position:

"When a question is  posed before a posek, there are a whole host of
considerations for him to  take into account. This is particularly true when
the underlying issues are  subject to dispute and can go either way. The
posek, then, has the right to  rule according to whichever opinions he
believes to be appropriate. If a  posek believes that the contemporary
context requires stringency then he  may certainly rule strictly on any
questionable matter....." 
 


....In other words, RHS decided that WTG was wrong, and ruled  accordingly on 
the
halachic issues in question....<<


>>>>>
This is a pretty good description of how da'as Torah works, if anyone is  
still wondering about the definition of that term.  The "personal" opinions  of a 
big talmid chacham are never just personal, and tend to gain wide  acceptance 
among those who respect him and who accept his authority.  Some  of those who 
move in YU circles seem to be allergic to the very idea of "da'as  Torah" but 
whether they use the term or not, that's what they're following when  they 
accede to the psak of a Torah scholar whom they respect and whose wisdom  they 
acknowledge to be greater than their own.

 

--Toby  Katz
=============





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