[Avodah] RYBS's Talk on Hafkaas Kiddushin, Talmud Torah and Kabala s Ol Malchus Shamayim

[Kenneth Miller via Avodah]

R' Joseph Kaplan asked:

> "We must not tamper, not only with the halachos, but even with
> the chazakos, for the chazakos of which chazal spoke rest not
> upon transient psychological behavioral patterns, but upon
> permanent ontological principles rooted in the very depth of
> the human personality, in the metaphysical human personality,
> which is as changeless as the heavens above."
>
> Can anybody explain what this really means? That is, explain it
> to someone who doesn’t use the word "ontological" in his/her
> normal speech.  I have read it many many times but I still
> don’t understand what the Rav is saying.

This is how I understand it:

Just as a leopard cannot change its spots, and just as Shabbos comes each week whether society accepts it or not, so too, there are certain elements of the human condition which Chazal have identified as inherent and unchanging, not subject to variation by time, place, or culture.

Or something like that. At any rate, one can agree or disagree about whether this assertion is true, and even among those who agree with it, there might be discussion of exactly which chazakos are unchanging and which are variable. Still, his point is that there are indeed some UNchanging aspects.

Akiva Miller
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