[Avodah] Mechallel Shabbos to destroy a non-kosher phone

[Zev Sero]

On 3/07/2012 2:35 PM, Micha Berger wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 03, 2012 at 11:00:49AM -0400, Zev Sero wrote:
>> On 3/07/2012 8:54 AM, Akiva Miller wrote:
>>> Who, pray tell, gave Real Semicha to the TAY Rebbe, that he would have
>>> the authority to take someone's property and destroy it?
>
>> What has Real Semicha (TM) got to do with it?  Does hefker BD not
>> apply nowadays?!  His authority derives, like anybody else's, from
>> his chassidim.
>
> I'm not sure why you say a rebbe is a beis din. Yes, they accept his
> authority as rebbe. That's different than toanim coming before a court.
> I think zaqein ha'ir might be more relevent, who has the power to give
> halachic gravitas to the decisions of the tuvei ha'ir -- including on
> taxation decisions. But even so, rebbes are usually not the qehillos
> posqim. (Of course, exceptions like the SR exist.) You know that better
> than I do.

This has nothing to do with psak halacha.  Smicha is irrelevant.
His authority as rebbe is precisely what is at issue, and what gives
him the right to issue such an edict.


-- 
Zev Sero        "Natural resources are not finite in any meaningful
zev at sero.name    economic sense, mind-boggling though this assertion
                  may be. The stocks of them are not fixed but rather
		 are expanding through human ingenuity."
		                            - Julian Simon