[Avodah] The Concept of Authority

[rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com]

I would have chosen
"Scope of authority"
But why quibble? :-)

RAM:
> E) POLICY

> Many of the things that are in this category end up being here because
> they would have been in one of the above categories, except that they
> were explicitly accepted "bli neder". Most commonly, a person or group
> will see an action which generally leads to good or bad results, and they
> therefore try to do or avoid that action in the future. It becomes their
> "policy" to do that thing or avoid that thing.

I specifically lumped policy into the term g'zeirah

1 I don't have a better term
2 when it's a s'yag prohibitting the otherwise muttar it fits the
strucutre to a "G"

X Is assur shema Y is as Talmud and Posqim term it - g'zeira.

EG Trumas Hasdeshen not allowing meat to hang around for 3 days lest it
be too late - as per the Gaonim - to salt.

> For example, a hashgacha organization might insist on certain rules
> for the companies which they supervise, and these rules have no direct
> connection to kashrus. These rules serve only to make the supervising
> easier, or to demonstrate seriousness to the factory workers so that
> they'll be less likely to cheat. For example, RRW recently cited a ban
> on bringing non-mevushal wine into a kosher restaurant. Presuming that
> it has an acceptable hechsher, there's really nothing wrong with bringing
> it in, except that it makes more work for the mashgiach.

> These rules are not binding on that hashgacha,

There not even binding on the mashgiach whilst outside this profession
purview

EG I work for an organization that REQUIRES pas yisroel and Hassidishe
Sh'cheeta. I do my best to zealously guard the eatery, but I am
personally not makpid at home etc.

But it goes further EG
Many hashgachos AS POLICY require the mashgiach to light ALL fires -
lest an eino y"hudi light a fire and mistakenly cause bishul aku"m

EVEN though certain acts of re-heating or certain foods do NOT require
this as per SA.

That is a STANDARD in some agencies - I. E. keep the lighters our of
the hands of the eino Y"hudim. But you won't find a Halachah AFAIK
requring this.

> nor on any competing organizations, in any sense whatsoever. It's
> simply a more efficient or more convenient way of doing things, and to
> these rules can be changed any time they find a different way to be more
> efficient or more convenient.

> I predict that when RRW has catalogued the different kinds of gezeros,
> it will turn out that they do not all fall into the same category of
> obligation.
> Akiva Miller

I may never get to categorizing them all. :-)
And my list was by no means an attempt to create a single category, just
to identify a tzad hashaveh between or accross the various categories. Nor
was it close to exhaustive!

If you want another term how about "s'yag"? But even that fails the
policy issue of RYDS and megillah at Stern and current, posthumous,
enforcement of RMF's issur on eruv in Manhattan - which I see as a policy
to perpetuate a older P'saq - more out of kavod than s'yag.

Here is a challenge for RAM and Aishdas to consider:

What is the scope of Mishnah Brurah's authority re: items such as:

1 repeating Zeicher/Zecher
2 B"tzitzis [sh'va] vs. Ba"tzitzis [patach]
3 no bracha on Tallis Qatan when putting Tallis Gadol in shul
4 Unmarrieds wearing Tallis [Gadol]

Or consider RMF:
1 No burial on YT Sheini
2 No Shabbos timers except for lights
3 Peanuts are not qitniyyos
4 Microwave is bishul legabei Shabbos [and by extension BB"Ch]

KT
RRW
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