[Avodah] Have you perhaps become more machmir or more meikil over time?

[Eli Turkel via Avodah]

<<Heaven forfend. I don't know what those words mean. There is no such
thing as a machmir and a meikil. Anyone who talks in that language is not a
posek. There is a halacha and there is an assessment of pros and cons and
different positions and then you apply it in a concrete situation.
Sometimes the ruling is more stringent, sometimes it's less stringent. But
the categories of machmir and meikil are extra-halachic. These words
shouldn't even be bandied about.  >>


just a note that R. Bleich has issued other controversial statements. See
for example

http://www.rationalistjudaism.com/2017/01/twisting-oneself-into-pretzel.html


[Email #2.]

I completely agreed with Prof. Levine that these remarks are very strange.
It is no secret that  ROY had many kulot. One of his more famous teshuvot
is on bishul akum. For sefardimSA in order to avoid bishul akum the food
has to be cooked by a Jew not just have the fire lit by a Jew. This creates
enormous difficulties for sefardim as many kosher restaurants have
nonJewish cooks where the masgiach lights the fire. There is even more
important outside of Israel. ROY comes up with a heter by combining various
opinions against the mechaber.

RSZA has a teshuva about finely cutting up eggs and onions on shabbat.
Though it might seem prohibited he states that his mother and other
righteous women did it and so he must justify it.

OTOH R. Elyashiv has been quoted as stating that when he issues a psak the
effect on the populace is immaterial. Thus, when he outlaws
shabbat elevators it is irrelevant whether the outcome is that many people
are stranded in their apartment every shabbat. RSZA OTOH considers
oneg shabbat an important feature of a psak

R Bleich can object to the words mekil and machmir but the reality is that
some poskim take into the effect of a psak on real people which can lead to
kulot while other poskim work in a theoretical world and the effect on
people is not important which frequently leads to a chumra.

There is a story about RYBS which I partially recall. He gave a lecture in
Stern college about characteristics of women in halacha. The next day a
woman asked a question and got a psak. She then asked doesn't this
contradict what you said yesterday. RYBS replied last night I was talking
about theoretical women. You asked a personal question.

-- 
Eli Turkel