[Avodah] Maharat

[Akiva Miller via Avodah]

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R' Shalom Simon wrote:

> I think it safe to say that no one takes semikha at face value
> as authority to pasken difficult halakhic questions on matters
> of grave import.

No one?!? I imagine this might be true about people who are relatively
learned, and relatively savvy in the ways of certain yeshivishe
circles. But I can testify that it is certainly not true of a typical
less-learned nominally-Orthodox person.

Towards the end of my first year in yeshiva in Yerushalayim, as I made
my plans to returns back to the USA, my friends were nudging me to
stay for a second year. I felt that the proper thing for me to do was
to return, as per my plans. But their annoying reached a certain
level, and I felt the most effective response would be to ask my
gemara rebbe (who I was very close with), and then I'd be able to tell
them to keep quiet.

Surprise! He answered me honestly, that leaving the yeshiva would be a
mistake, I needed a second year of chizuk, etc etc etc. I was
devastated, having to choose between his p'sak and what *I* felt to be
right. In the end, I wasn't strong enough to follow Hashem's halacha.
I left the yeshiva, returned to YU for the one remaining year to get
my degree, and then returned to my yeshiva in Yerushalayim.

All the while, a cloud hung over me, for going against his p'sak. I
will not attempt to describe how much guilt I felt over this. But I
*will* tell you that a year or two later, I traded that guilt for
disillusionment, when I learned that although we called him "Rabbi
Ploni", he was not a rabbi at all, never having received semicha.

Perhaps I'm an extreme example, but that simply means that similar
things happen to other people too, just not to such an extreme extent.

Akiva Miller