[Avodah] Halachic Texts: More Background

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Micha Berger wrote:
> The Gra doesn't ignore prominent poseqim. He ignores the
> kehillah's precedent as to which prominent poseiq to
> follow. It's an anti-mimetic thing, and probably a product
> of the collapse of the ghetto's culture during his times.

R' Joel Rich asked:
> Interesting assertion - has anyone written on this?

For the benefit of new subscribers, I would like to suggest that anyone unfamiliar with the word "mimetic" should go out of their way to read "Rupture And Reconstruction: The Transformation Of Contemporary Orthodoxy" by R' Haym Soloveitchik, originally published in Tradition, Vol. 28, No. 4 (Summer 1994), and now available online at http://www.lookstein.org/links/orthodoxy.htm

I find it to be an excellent history of the transformation of halachic Judaism from being based on what we learned from out ancestors, to one based on what we learn from printed texts. The word "ghetto" appears in that article exactly once, and I think it might be debatable whether or not he supports RMB's post. Tze ul'mad.

Akiva Miller

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