[Avodah] The Dynamic of Post-Talmudic Brachos

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Jan 06, 2010 at 04:59:09AM +0000, rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com wrote:
: 1 Everything brachah in the Talmud is "axiomatic" - a given
: IF the minhag [Catholic Israel] is to say the brachah -even If it's
: post-Talmud "ein l'vatlah"
: So "Talmudic" does not exactly equate to Post-talmudic BUT Post-Talmudic
: brachos can be legit.
: 
: Now see Rambam Haqdama on post-Talmudic Taqqanos/G'zeiros/Minhaggim.  
...
: Now you'll pretty much be able to intuit my understanding of Post-Talmudic
: g'zeiros too.

I don't know if the parallel could be made between berakhos and all three
of the Rambam's categories.

A pesaq can be nispasheit and accepted, even after Ravina veR' Ashi sof
hora'ah. But we haven't really established a concept of "local gezeirah"
in the Rambam's category-of-legislation sense of gezeirah.

: Talmud is binding because all Israel [Catholic Israel] accepts it.

We accept it as a point of departure. But there are exceptions.

This already demonstrates a different model for halachic authority than
the Rambam's. According to the Rambam, shas is basically a BD; there is
no room for exceptions. In Ashkenaz, there are numerous exceptions.

Similarly, if "being binding" is all or nothing, the SA+Mapah isn't a
modern parallel to shas. Whereas if it means "point of departure", the
SA was pretty widely accepted in that sense.

RYBS made two contrasting statements on this point:

1- He likened the authority of the SA to the Rambam's explanation for
the authority of Shas; and yet
2- RYBS at another time said that "It's okay to pasqen against the SA,
but you better know you are doing so, and you better know why".

One quote implies binding like a BD, the other implies a point of
departure, a factor to figure in to one's list of pros and cons
when weighing alternative pesaqim.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Our greatest fear is not that we're inadequate,
micha at aishdas.org        Our greatest fear is that we're powerful
http://www.aishdas.org   beyond measure
Fax: (270) 514-1507                        - Anonymous