[Avodah] Mesorah

[Daniel Israel]

On Thu, 20 Aug 2009 03:42:35 -0600 Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org> 
wrote:
>On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 09:21:03AM +0300, Eli Turkel wrote:
>: In summary when I learn or teach I frequently will bring in 
historical
>: information (just did that in the discussion about Baba Butra 
and the
>: bet hamikdash in Baba Basra)
>: Doesnt mean that I would change halacha according.
>: However that doesnt diminish a historical analysis.
>
>I consider it dimished in the sense that it's not the ikkar qiyum
>hamitzvah of talmud Torah for the same reasons that it doesn't 
influence
>pesaq. Not less important than studying science qua maasei Hashem.

I agree with your overall point, but I think it is a complex one to 
argue, in part because the lines are not a sharp as you draw them

To take a (hopefully good) concrete example.  I heard somewhere 
that R' Ya'akov Kamenetsky would use a thalet rather than a dalet 
in the echad of shema.  Leaving aside the reliability of the story 
(my chavrusa asked two of his grandsons, one thought it was 
plausible, the other dismissed it), it is clear that the reason 
this is interesting, assuming it is true, is because of RYK's 
status as a posek, not his status as an academic.  In that sense I 
am supporting your thesis.  If I want to know historically what the 
actually ancient pronunciation was RYK is not an authoritative 
source, I would rather speak to an academic expert in linguistic 
archeology.  OTOH, if I am interested in halacha l'ma'aseh, RYK is 
a very significant source, regardless of what the historical truth 
is.

OTOH, to the best of my knowledge, there is very little purely 
halachic material on which one could decide to use a thalet.  It is 
consistent with certain halachic sources, such as the SA's ruling 
that it needs to be drawn out.  And it is consistent with Temani 
pronunciation.  But I would suspect that any posek considering such 
a position is being informed by academic scholarship, not by a 
mesorah for that idea.  Ain hachi nami, they are using the academic 
scholarship to raise the issue, and then filtering it through the 
mesorah to reach a conclusion.  In that sense it is similar to a 
rav asking an MD about a medical shaila.  But it does blur the 
lines your are drawing.

--
Daniel M. Israel
dmi1 at cornell.edu