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

[Akiva Miller via Avodah]

R' Eli Turkel wrote:

> 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.

I will side with Rav Bleich on this. If a posek will "take into the effect
of a psak on real people", why does that cause it to be labeled a "kula"?
And if a posek feels that "the effect on people is not important", why
should it be called a "chumra"?

Let's take, for example, RET's paragraph that immediately preceded that one:

> 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

Based on this paragraph alone, I would say that Rav Elyashiv's approach is
to analyze the act based purely on the melachos involved, while Rav
Auerbach considers other factors too. This does not define either of them
as a meikil or a machmir. (Do I really need to cite the many rabbis over
the centuries who said, "I'm not being meikil about Yom Kippur, chalila!
I'm being machmir on sakana!")

To disparage Rav Elyashiv for being machmir on elevators, makes as much
sense as disparaging Rav Auerbach for being machmir on oneg shabbos. Alas,
humans that we are, we tend to enjoy one more than the other, and I think
*that's* how the labels took hold.

R' Yitzchok Levine wrote:

> ... many, many conversations and assertions in which persons
> or practices are designated by this one or that one as being
> meikil or machmir.

Please take careful note of how wisely this was phrased. A person may
choose to designate *another* person as being meikil or machmir. But no one
sees himself that way. Everyone sees himself as squarely in the middle.

Akiva Miller
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