[Avodah] Maharat

[Akiva Miller via Avodah]

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Is semicha required for hora'ah? To illustrate the possibility that it
is *not* required, I wrote:

> Many times, people have told me that the author of the Mishne Berura
> did not get semicha until very late in life when he needed the
> ordination for some government paperwork. And yet, he was quite
> involved with hora'ah, and we rely on his paskening even today.

R' Zev Sero responded:

> Hora'ah means paskening shaylos; that was the town rav's business,
> and I'm sure if anyone would ask the CC a shayla he would send
> them to the rav.

And yet, he DID write a six-volume work, in which it is difficult to
find even a single page where he merely reports what other acharonim
wrote. Rather, he frequently brings various opinions and tells us
which one is the ikar, or tells us how to follow both, or some other
expression of his personal opinion.

Is this not "shikul hadaas"? Is this not "horaah"? Is this not "paskening"?

I had written that a non-semicha person could give a shiur in Kitzur
Shulchan Aruch, provided that he is careful to merely read and explain
the text, but ... ...

> But inevitably, someone will ask, "But what is the halacha in this
> other, similar-but-not-identical situation?" May he answer that
> question? Wouldn't that count as shikul hadaas? Wouldn't that require
> require semicha?

R' Micha Berger responded:

> Well, sometimes it does, and often the similar situation is also
> not an open question that requires decision-making rather than
> just reporting the dominant shitah in the sho'el's community.

"Black-letter halacha" is often not as black as we might think. Who
gets to decide which shita is the dominant one? If the community has a
recognized rav who issued a ruling on this exact question, then I can
quote that. But in the great majority of cases, there are two or more
shitos, and I have no idea which is "dominant".

Akiva Miller