[Avodah] prof sperber

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 07:44:20AM -0700, Saul.Z.Newman at kp.org wrote:
: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/977278.html
: 1]  on  ivory tower psak

I agree that there is a real problem when formal/textual halachic process
is used not only to validate options, but as the sole criterion for
weighing them. Then you're left with vacuums that only get filled by
"baal nefesh yachmir" and "we most be chosheish for ...'s shitah" --
the textualist's means of extending boundries.

The concept of a living mesorah, or addressing the abilities and
limitations of the sho'el are simply not sufficient obvious when the
role of poseiq shifted from the rav to the RY. (With some obvious
exceptions. Speaking only of tendencies and bell curves.)

Just as on the other side I wrote before Pesach about what I believe is
a real problem when someone aspires to use other weighting schemes to
the extent of questioning the value of textual limitation of our options.

RSRH writes in 19 Letters that the Wissenschaft approach to halakhah is
not "science" (to literally translate the German), but alchemy. The
alchemist is the one who starts with a theory and selects the
experiments to fit it. The scientific approach to halakhah is to take
the "experimental results" of the process and from them form theories
to help predict what would happen in new cases.

I think the model needs to be a shade richer. Because after all is
said and done, all one can discover is "divrei E-lokim chaim", the
endof the bas qol "vehalakhah keBeis Hillel" is sometimes well defined,
and sometimes left for us to weigh pros and cons for ourselves. RSRH,
by fushing against R on one side, ends up portraying what I believe
would be an error to the other.

Perhaps we can say that halakhah is a technology. One has to produce
the correct science in order to know the full potential of what one
can construct without trying to violate the laws of nature.

: 2]  on use of new data [manuscripts etc]  in psak 

We also recently discussed the CI's opposition to this.

Fundamentally, it comes from a neglect of the fact that when all is said
and done, discovery is only one part of the picture. After the scientific
discovery one needs the technological application.

And thus, halakhah is not only a matter of finding the truth, but the
more interesting questions are almost entirely a matter of creativity
within those truths. And thus, a wrong girsa that produces decisions and
feeds the process may be false, but if nothing counter-halachic (against
the laws of nature) is produced, what was constructed will work.

The difference between a study of what is true, and a study of what is
legal.


And this model might help address RnCL's question of months back about
top-down vs bottom-up approaches to pesaq.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 9th day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        1 week and 2 days in/toward the omer.
http://www.aishdas.org   Gevurah sheb'Gevurah: When is strict justice
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            most appropriate?