[Avodah] Asking your own shailas

[Micha Berger]

On Sat, Feb 18, 2012 at 09:44:44PM -0500, Prof. Levine wrote:
> At 02:28 PM 2/17/2012, Dovid Cohen wrote:
>> R' Liron Kopinsky asked if one can rely on a shaila asked by another, or if
>> "you always need to find out how your particular LOR paskens."

>> I have heard the assertion made that one needs to pick one rav and follow
>> him in everything, but I'm not sure what the source for that is.

> I really do not see how one can rely on one rov for "everything."  Some 
> sheilos require expertise in particular areas, and I doubt that one rov 
> will have expertise in all areas.

To my mind, the important factors are:

The value of turning to someone else with your questions just to gain
objectivity. So you don't want to be picking a rav based on what answer
fits your preconceptions -- whether it's satisfying taavah (lequlah)
or a need for yuharah (lechumerah).

The value of minimizing inconsistency. IOW, if one needs multiple
experts, try to get experts who work in similar ways, and perhaps have
one recommend the other. If possible.

The distance between theoretical discussion (halakhah velo lemaaseh),
discussing lomdus in places like Avodah, and actual pesaq halakhah
for lemaaseh.

Among the things that cause that distance is that violating accepted
norms and violating the general path the din has been evolving through
are factors that need to be weighed in a lemaaseh decision. It's not
all lomdus.

Last, I fear that we got so focused on halakhah as promulgated by
consensus -- even those of us who know on a conscious level that there is
rarely a consensus of "major posqim" (or even which posqim are "major"),
by tertiary sources and halachic guides, and by personal interaction
with books.

This last point defies what I think is the central Oral Tradition nature
of TSBP. The culture of posqim, and the culture of what people do, is
*supposed* to be part of the halachic process. As is the evolution of
sevara, rather than sevara based on blank-slate evaluation of the sources.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Life is complex.
micha at aishdas.org                Decisions are complex.
http://www.aishdas.org               The Torah is complex.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                                - R' Binyamin Hecht