[Avodah] Kitniyot

[Zev Sero]

On 31/03/2013 12:22 AM, Lisa Liel wrote:
>
> You seem to be taking an extreme position that reality/facts are irrelevant in the face of psak.  If that's not the case, correct me. Whereas I am saying that psak can be reconsidered in the face of new evidence.  I know rabbanim who have reconsidered their piskei halakha when new evidence comes to light.  And in case you think that this is not the same as questioning the psak of earlier rabbanim, I would simply point to deaf people as my proof.  I haven't seen the recent article in Ami Magazine called "Being Deaf and Jewish", but I do know that the understanding of cheresh was reevaluated in the face of new evidence, even though it effectively changed the psak of Tannaim and Amoraim!

I doubt they did such a thing.  Rather, the metzius is that most deaf people
are not also mute.  Their speech may not be easily intelligible, but it is
recognisable as speech.  And of course today there are cochlear implants that
effectively cure a cheresh.

I've also seen poskim suggest that Chazal's psak only applies to a person
who can't communicate, but any cheresh who learns sign language and lip
reading is no longer a cheresh.   I find that hard to understand, because
the halacha is clear that a cheresh who communicates clearly in writing is
still a cheresh.  He could write volumes of shaalos and teshuvos, but he's
still patur from mitzvos.  So how can sign language or lip reading be
different?

-- 
Zev Sero               A citizen may not be required to offer a 'good and
zev at sero.name          substantial reason' why he should be permitted to
                        exercise his rights. The right's existence is all
                        the reason he needs.
                            - Judge Benson E. Legg, Woollard v. Sheridan