[Avodah] Psak she'ein hatzibbur yecholin laamod bo

[David Riceman]

RJR:

<<Truth be told, I'm not sure that psak today is same - i.e. is its 
force based on presumed neder/acceptance? If I ask a learned friend who 
doesn't have smicha, is it binding? One who does but from an institution 
I am unfamiliar with? What if I am a member of 2 shuls and the rabbis 
come out with conflicting opinions....>>

These are all interesting questions and deserve detailed discussions.  
I'll make some wild guesses:

1. " If I ask a learned friend who doesn't have smicha, is it binding?"

It depends on how learned, and on who else lives nearby, and on his 
age.  See YD 242:13-14.  Cf. 242:4.  So you may violate lifnei iver by 
asking him.

2.  "is its force based on presumed neder/acceptance?"

See 242:34 in the Rama.  There are various opinions among aharonim about 
why "hacham she'asar ain haveiro reshai l'hatir ...", and the answer 
depends on that.

3.  "One who does but from an institution I am unfamiliar with?"

I can think of two opposite answers.  OTOneH it's hard to imagine anyone 
with semicha who doesn't have a nodding acquaintance with the SA, and 
certainly b'sha'as hadhak one can rely on the Mehaber and the Rama.  
OTOtherH its precisely the person who was poorly educated who is less 
likely to recognize his own incompetence.  Just to make you feel worse, 
either side has its own lifnei iver problem.  See 242:13-14.

Maybe you should give him a test first?

4.  "What if I am a member of 2 shuls and the rabbis come out with 
conflicting opinions...."

The Rama uses the lashon of "ir", but he lived in an era where "ir" and 
"kehillah" were coterminous.  The model was that each kehillah had its 
rav.  In contemporary America its rare to find anything resembling a 
kehillah, which has coercive authority.  You should obviously follow 
each Rabbi's psak in his own shul, but I have no idea how to decide 
whose opinion to follow elsewhere.

David Riceman