[Avodah] Chazakah that Changed

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

RYBS's famous attack on R' Rackman's beis din included the words
(from R' Ari Kahn's transcript at
<http://arikahn.blogspot.com/2013/03/rabbi-soloveitchik-talmud-torah-and.html>):

    V'chen hakofer b'perusha v'hu torah she b'al peh v'hamach'chish
    magideha; he who denies the perfection and the truthfulness of
    chachmei chazal -- not of the Torah, but of the chachmei chazal
    as personalities, as real persona as far as their character, their
    philosophy, or their outlook on the world is concerned -- is a kofer.

Which RALichtenstein believed was the primary thesis. And then this comment
on chazaqah:

   Let me add something that is very important: not only the halachos
   but also the chazakos which chachmei chazal have introduced are
   indestructible. 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. Let us take for example
   the chazaka that I was told about: the chazaka tav l'meisiv tan du
   mil'meisiv armalo has absolutely nothing to do with the social and
   political status of women in antiquity. This chazaka is based not
   upon sociological factors, but upon a verse in breishis -- harba
   arbeh itz'voneich v'heironeich b'etzev teildi vanim v'el isheich
   t'shukaseich v'hu yimshal bach -- "I will greatly multiply thy
   pain and thy travail; in pain thou shalt bring forth children, and
   thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee".
   It is a metaphysical curse rooted in the feminine personality --
   she suffers incomparably more that the male who is in solitude. ....

(More of the same, there.)

While this argument is easier to invoke WRT tav lemeisiv, since there
is that pasuq, note that RYBS makes this a general rule

    the chazakos which chachmei chazal have introduced are
    indestructible. ... 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. Let us take for example

Tav lemeisiv is an example.

This is strange, because there is a counter-example in the Rama, in EhE
17:2
<https://www.sefaria.org/Shulchan_Arukh,_Even_HaEzer.17.2?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en>.
This is the very siman that addresses agunah!

Chazal have a chazaqah that a wife wouldn't brazenly lie in front of her
husband. So, if a woman insists in front of her husband that he divorced
her, she is believed.

The Rama says that nowadays, brazeness is too common, and the Ran says
this is only WRT to demanding a divorce to any subsequent marriage.
Hagahos Maimonis says we do not rely on this chazaqah to allow her to
collect her kesuvah. Veyeis omrim, it's only believed lechumera (BY in
the name of OC).

The Rambam does stick to Chazal's pesaq.

Either way, it's clear that these rishonim and the Rama did not think
that denying this particular chazaqah is kofer bepeirushah.

As I said, it's in the SA on this very topic. Hard to imagine RYBS didn't
have a distinction in mind...

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "And you shall love H' your G-d with your whole
micha at aishdas.org        heart, your entire soul, and all you own."
http://www.aishdas.org   Love is not two who look at each other,
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