[Avodah] Sleeves that Cover the Elbows

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Aug 16, 2012 at 10:39:01AM -0400, Rich, Joel wrote:
: Which raises a question that has fascinated me for a long time and to
: which I've heard some interesting answers (including it's not a question)
: - what led beit Hillel and beit Shamai to their respective approaches
: (or Hillel and Shamai)?

Hillel and Shammai have all of three machloqesin that they didn't
eventually agree upon. Which is why the gemara asks what happened that
their talmidim had so many machloqesin. "Shelo shimshu es rabosam."

The Maharal on Avos explains that because of this lack of shimush,
talmidei BH didn't realize how much of Hillel's approach was because
his role was that of nasi. They saw the role,not the person or his
ideology. Since a nasi orders society and works in chesed, they tended to
bring that chesed into how they pasqened. Similarly Beis Shammai became
overly influenced by the middas hadin they learned from their rebbe,
the av beis din.

Chesed ended up winning the day, IMHO, for two reasons -- to take my own
spin on two other maamarei chazal:

1- It led to greater respect for the opposing opinion. Beis Hillel would
quote Beis Shammai's position before their own. But this also means that
BH actually considered both sides before deciding. Much like the reasoning
behind halahah kebasrai.

2- People like chesed, which gave Beis Hillel the majority of talmidim.

Ideologically "olam chesed yibaneh", it's better to err in that direction.
But that's a hashkafic point, not one that gives halachic authority to one
side or the other.

:                         What leads current day poskim?

As I wrote a few times around 2 or 3 years ago, I think pesaq comes from
the weighing of several conflicting priorities. It's not a simple algorithm,
for which you can have hard-and-fast rules. The concerns a poseiq addresses
appear to fit three general areas:
    - legal merit and authority (how many people said it before and who,
      how compelling he finds their argument, etc...)

    - aggadic value (does it fit the Zohar? the sho'el's derekh?)

    - practical mesorah (memetic tradition / toras imekha)

Today there is also much weight being given to the sociological
implications of a pesaq. What will ruling X vs Y do to the future of
the qehillah? I am not sure how much these para-halachic considerations
produce pesaq halakhah rather than hora'as derekh -- the line seems to
be blurry.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             I always give much away,
micha at aishdas.org        and so gather happiness instead of pleasure.
http://www.aishdas.org           -  Rachel Levin Varnhagen
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