[Avodah] Post achronic (was shabbas//mishum eiva, etc???)

[Chana Luntz]

RZS wrote:

>The era of Acharonim is usually reckoned to have stopped at about 1800 or a
bit earlier.  The Chasam Sofer is not an Acharon.

> RMB replied:
> I didn't even know there /was/ a post-acharonic, although I have argued
> that history would someday draw a line at the Shoah.
> ------------------

And MYG further replied:

> I like drawing the line at R' Chaim Volozhiner, and calling everything
> afterward the era of the Roshei Yeshivos.

I'm sorry, I just don't see it.

I spend a fair bit of time reading teshuvos, and I just don't see any
distinction made between the period pre and post the Chatam Sofer, or the
Shoah, or R' Chaim Volozhiner in the way the  various authors of the shutim
relate to the various authorities that precede them.

a) For example, today the Igeros Moshe continues to be highly influential.
But Rav Moshe had no qualms with disagreeing with anybody he considered an
achron, but would not take the same approach to a rishon.  Indeed, some of
his most noted piskei teshuva involve such disagreement - eg his stance on
abortion meant disagreeing strongly with Rav Ya'akov Emden (clearly achronic
by all the definitions above) and in his position on hair covering he
disagrees with the Chatam Sofer (an achron according to the last two
definitions).

b) as another example, Rav Ovadiah Yosef is highly influential (not just
amongst Sephardim these days).  But in his famous assessment and listing of
the views of others who have written on a particular topic (the
encyclopaedic aspect), he makes no distinction between those who are pre and
post either the Chatam Sofer, R' Chaim Volozhiner or the Shoah (he will
quote Rav Moshe, for example, clearly post Shoah, along with others pre
Shoah).

And I could go on and on.  I cannot recall a modern set of teshuvos that I
have seen where the author of the shut says, as we would say with a rishon,
well we cannot debate him, he is an achron, and we are post achronic.  RSZA
famously was reluctant to go against the Chazon Ish on electricity vis a vis
hilchos shabbas - but that is not a pre and post Shoah or any of these other
time line debate. 

And indeed, the few times I have ventured into the Chazon Ish, he takes on
Achronim with gusto and disagrees with their psak based solely on his own
reasoning, and not on setting off some other achron against those whom he
takes to task.  That is not the attitude of somebody who considers himself
living in a post achronic era.

Historically I agree that most of the people who wrote shutim were the Rav
of a town or city, rather than a Rosh Yeshiva (although to be fair, I am not
sure how many "roshei yeshiva" while they may posken for those who go to
them, write shutim that get quoted in the same breath as ROY or the Tzitz
Eliezer.  Note that of the various modern people listed in the Bar Ilan data
base Rav Shternbach, for example, is Av Beis Din of the Eidis Charedis, not
just a rosh yeshiva, and even Rav Eliyashev spent a fair bit of time in
dayanus).  And I think it is the shutim which are the real comparison of
like with like, and I don't see any such distinction being made there.

Regards

Chana