[Avodah] : Re: Characterizing our era

[Chana Luntz]

> R' Micha Berger wrote:
> 
> This potential post-acharonic period lacks a similar book. While
> the MB is rising to that role, it's only one of 4 Turim.

I don't even see this - ie that the MB is rising to the role.  

First of all, I just don't see anybody getting the Lubavitchers to follow
the MB over the Shulchan Aruch HaRav any time soon.  And similarly with
other Chassidim, who follow the Shulchan Aruch HaRav, unless they prefer to
follow the Kitzer.

And there are still enough pockets around in YU and Israel that prefer the
Aruch HaShulchan for the MB to really be considered so overwhelmingly
dominant, even in the areas that it covers.

But more tellingly is the fact that a good portion of the MB is just not
that relevant to us today.  Why?  A third of the MB covers hilchos shabbas,
and another chunk of it is on hilchos yom tov.  But the reality of the
advent of modern technology is that a large number of the questions that
trouble us today vis a vis hilchos shabbas and yom tov are not even hinted
at in the MB.  Things like crockpots and time switches and LEDs and
electronic circuits and automatic sensors and disposable packaging and the
list goes on and on.

That means that today, when people are learning for the rabbanut smicha
exams on hilchos shabbas (and surely that should be reasonable test of what
is regarded today as key halachic knowledge) they go from the Shulchan Aruch
and nosei kelim (with at most a cursory look at what the MB says) to the
various people who discuss these issues and how to apply hilchos shabbas to
modern day scenarios - RSZA, Rav Moshe, the Chazon Ish, ROY - because the MB
just doesn't speak to these issues at all.

So I struggle to see how the MB can be considered to be rising to the role
of a modern Shulchan Aruch, when already it is desperately out of date vis a
vis large chunks of the areas that it covers.

Regards

Chana