[Avodah] Maharat

[Akiva Miller via Avodah]

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R' Micha Berger wrote:

> Someone who follows a rav's pesaq is obeying lo sasur, and
> therefore did the right thing even if the rabbi's shiqul
> hada'as was faulty. Any hypothetical qorban chatos would be
> the rabbi's. If the person is not among those covered by
> mikol asher yorukha, then the qorban chatas is yours for
> listening to her, not the Maharat's.

L'halacha, I totally agree.

L'maaseh, it is critical to determine who is a "rav" and who isn't.
That is, who is "covered by mikol asher yorukha" and who isn't.

It is my opinion that the typical yoetzet and maharat are at least
equally qualified (and likely more so) than the typical gemara rebbe,
because they have been trained in answering such questions, but he has
not. And yet, it is an everyday occurrence for students (myself
included, until I learned better) to ask all sorts of shailos to these
teachers, because, after all, *Rabbi* Ploni is obviously a rabbi!

> I disagree with both of these. YD 242 is about kavod harav.
> IOW, it says that such permission is necessary, but not that
> anyone with permission is necessarily a rabbi.

I agree that YD 242 is about kavod harav. And if the rav is niftar,
then that permission is no longer necessary, but that's not what the
discussion is about. The discussion is about who is covered by mikol
asher yorukha. So why wouldn't the semicha place a musmach into that
category?

In other words: Suppose a certain person *is* in that category, and
then gives semicha "yoreh yoreh" to another individual. Doesn't the
semicha announce to the world that the second individual is now
covered by mikol asher yorukha?

Akiva Miller