[Avodah] inter-eidah psak

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Thu, Feb 11, 2016 at 07:37:30PM -0800, saul newman via Avodah wrote:
: http://seforim.blogspot.com/2016/02/some-unusually-liberal-statements-by.html
: with attention to the latter segment of this article by dr shapiro. there
: is an ongoing discussion between rabbi gordimer  and him as to whether
: there are different types of psak in different eidot.
...
: it seems that somewhere in the last 50 yr the acceptability to pasken by a
: gadol in the 'other' camp has fallen by the wayside...

Personally, I think these are two different topics. With the rise of
daas Torah, and the blurring of the line between halakhah and hashkafah,
it became harder to be a cross-eidah poseiq. RMF or RSZA were capable of
saying "given what you believe about the signficance of haqamas haMedinah,
X is" -- or isn't -- "mutar on Yom haAtzma'ut". In a manner that the MO or
DL sho'el feels confident the answer isn't colored by bias against the
whole concept. And today, a great poseiq whose daas Torah runs against
YhA cannot touch the consequences of assuming otherwise.

That said, RHS disagrees with my assumption that my personal rosy
nostalgic memories of the gedolim of my youth is a good thing. He holds
(based on Sanhedrin 5a-b) that pesaq requires knowing something about
all of halakhah, as well as the more obvious need to have expertise in
the area in question. But all of halakhah is connected, so one can't
pasqen without knowing the big picture.

And along the same lines, RHS feels that a person should be going to a
poseiq who shares the same hashkafah. It's all one piece; a change in
attitude on one topic could be connected to something that would seem
to be an entirely different topic.

I see I wrote about this before, with links to YUTorah etc..., at
<http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol33/v33n078.shtml#04>

In any case, what I am describing wouldn't be an issue of different
types of pesaq as much as pesaq with different sets of non-halachic
givens. Whether it's because the metzius differs in two communities or
because of differences in hashkafah.

Which is what R Ysoscher Katz assured me he meant by "Modern
Orthodox psak", and not how RAGordimer took him. That said, my own
assessment of pesaq in Open O circles, including his own words in
<http://j.mp/1onj24a>, worries me. But to my mind that doesn't revolve
around whether "there are different types of psak in different eidot"
as much as what kinds of innovation, or IOW how much neglect of
precedent in both text and mimeticism, is pesaq at all.

Similarly, I find the trend to blur the line between pesaq and other
rabbinic guidance also worrisome.

I'm a Litvak, perhaps that means I'm predisposed to worry.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Despair is the worst of ailments. No worries
micha at aishdas.org        are justified except: "Why am I so worried?"
http://www.aishdas.org                         - Rav Yisrael Salanter
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