[Avodah] Rosh Hashanah 32b There's Hope For Everyone

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, May 18, 2008 at 05:02:14PM -0400, Richard Wolpoe wrote:
:> Chazal can't be wrong. If you believe that derashos are constructive --
:> and amazingly include something halakhah lemaaseh even in the midbar! --
:> then it means their position DEFINES halakhah.

:> Asserting they were wrong would mean asserting that HQBH gave them the
:> tools to construct a law He would't have approved of. Does Hashem err?

: Assuming:
:> Chazal can't be wrong.

Not quite. Although that's what I said.

What I mean was: Any answer Chazal reached using halachic process
correctly isn't wrong. Even if they did so using bad science. It might
be a good pesaq for a case that in reality may never arise (such as
the kashrus of dirt-mice), or a binding chumrah for which the reason
we have doesn't fit the data. But it's correct in the sense of being
binding.

In any case, we have no way of assessing halachic process well enough to
2nd guess them.

I said "Chazal can't be wrong" in a discussion of derashos according
to the Rambam, who holds that they were constructive. (As in the next
sentence.) Unless they made a technical error in the derashah, they
derived a valid pesaq from the pasuq. That pesaq BECOMES law by their
authority; we don't say they mis-guessed Hashem's intent. As I wrote,
since Hashem doesn't err, He didn't leave in His Torah the tools to
construct a law He wouldn't approve of.

And no one knows the technical limitations of derashos anymore -- one
of the reasons (perhaps the lack of Sanhedrin is a 2nd) we don't in
practice make new ones even lefi haRambam.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 30th day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        4 weeks and 2 days in/toward the omer.
http://www.aishdas.org   Gevurah sheb'Hod: When does capitulation
Fax: (270) 514-1507                  result in holding back from others?