[Avodah] NishmaBlog: Pardon my French! "Bon Matin" and "Franglais"

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Feb 09, 2011 at 11:08:51AM -0500, Rich, Joel replied to my summary
of R' Dr Moshe Koppel's thesis:
:> There are two ways to learn a language: The native speaker doesn't
:> learn rules of grammar before using them, he just knows what "sounds
:> right". In contrast, an immigrant builds his sentences by using formalized
:> rules...

:> He argues that halakhah is similarly best transmitted by creating
:> "native speakers". It is only due to loss of our progressive loss of the
:> Sinai culture with each generation that we need to rely on transmitting
:> codified rules....

: Does such a system in theory eventually converge to total codified
: rules as a basis for decisions?

Only if new situations never arose.

:                                 IMHO part of the issue today is we
: have a system with detailed analytic rules and analysis which every so
: often gets a wild card "poetic" response...

So you answered your own question -- we haven't reached convergence yet.

Personally, I think of the issur of electricity (aside from filaments,
sparking motors and other cases where what the electricity is doing
on Shabbos) was such a case of "poetry". Which is why those who had a
feel for how halakhah works overwhelmingly prohibited it, even though
we still lack any consensus on a clear formal rule that it falls under.

I also think you are writing more about questions over when it's
appropriate, when the gut-feel pesaq is "wild card" and causing "head
shaking" than questions about whether the basic concept is valid.

Last, I think that the Rambamists of this world, the Andalusian
revivalists, the talmidim of R' Moshe Chait, etc... with the exclusion
of the Darva'im, since I don't know enough about the history of pesaq
in Teiman to comment, are primarily people who are seeking the safety
of well-defined rules. IOW, it's not really about a preference for the
Rambam and the claim that he was more connected to the ge'onim than other
rishonim were. If it were, they would be following the Beha"g. It's
because the Mishneh Torah is so clear-cut and organized in comparison
to more mainstream ways of pasqening. They want an algorithmic halakhah
rather than a messier set of rules of thumb and weighing pros and cons. It
allows for more certainty and gives less room for abuse.

The problem is that the world is too complex, and the human condition
is frought with shades of gray, and halakhah has to accomodate that.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Man can aspire to spiritual-moral greatness
micha at aishdas.org        which is seldom fully achieved and easily lost
http://www.aishdas.org   again. Fulfillment lies not in a final goal,
Fax: (270) 514-1507      but in an eternal striving for perfection. -RSRH