[Avodah] Characterizing our era (was: Re: shabbas//mishum

[Chana Luntz]

RMB writes:

> Until recently. Posqim born before the Shoah were and are willing to
> argue their understanding of the rishonim without much worry that they
> were disagreeing with an earlier acharon. Eg the IM.

Agree.
 
> But now among the gedolim who weren't deciding halakhah before 1945,
> it seems to me attention has shifted to following our understanding of
> the pre-War acharonim, turning only to directly referring to rishonim
> when there is no clear acharonic position.

Where do you see this?

For such an assertion we need some sort of proof and I don't see it.

What we are seeing is that the existence of modern technology (or
extraordinary memories in the case of ROY but even there that is helped by
the sheer availability of works that were not easily accessible to previous
generations) has made us able to find and be cognisant of achronim that we
might never previously have beeen able to access.  And that means that there
is suddenly a huge breadth of achronic thought that anybody, including
current gedolim, can draw on in a way that previous generations couldn't.
That therefore means that you are far more likely to find an achron who has
already said what you believe is correct halacha l'maase than in previous
generations - and obviously if somebody previously has said what you
believe is correct and it is reasonable to expect you to find it, you are
going to cite that person rather than indicate this as a chiddush of one's
own.  It is thus going to be far more common that two earlier positions are
squared off than that a person will tackle an achron directly.  But that to
my mind is to do with technology, not the Shoah.

And to get to your assertion, you would need to find somebody saying "well I
disagree with this achron, I don't find anybody whom I consider an achron to
argue with them, but I am not prepared to posken against them because they
are an achron and I am not".  Where do you find such a statement in the
shutim? Or even outside the shutim?

> Tir'u baTov!
> -Micha

Shabbat Shalom

Chana