[Avodah] Gil'ad Shalit and the Maharam miRutenberg

[Zev Sero]

Micha Berger wrote:
> RHM's comment on Areivim made me wonder...
> 
> When the Maharam miRutenberg got word to the Rosh not to pay the ransom
> (the money was already raised), was it a personal sacrifice or a pesaq?

First of all, did it even happen?   AIUI there is very little evidence
for it, and that those who know about such matters believe it more
likely that the money was never raised, and thus the question was never
a practical one.


> I was taught the latter, and that in fact the MmR's decision was invoked
> in later teshuvos. My Bar Ilan skills are either lacking, or I was under
> a misimpression.
> 
> If anyone knows more about the MmR's decision as halachic precedent, I
> would be happy to read it.

This includes the sub-question of whether the fact that lo dubim velo
yaar -- if indeed it is a fact -- should affect our view of those
teshuvos that treat it as fact.  In other words, if the "psak" was
accepted by later authorities as halacha, does it matter how it arose?
Would those who rely on it not have done so, had they known (assuming
again, for the purpose of discussion, that the story is indeed untrue)?

-- 
Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
                                                     - Margaret Thatcher