[Avodah] Decentralizing Authority

[Zev Sero via Avodah]

On 08/08/17 10:29, Micha Berger via Avodah wrote:
> I wouldn't call that DT at all. In my experience, DT refers to turning
> to gedolei Torah for questions whose unknowns are not Torah. Typical
> reasons given:
> 
> 1- Absorbing all that Torah gives a mind a particular perspective and
> ability more in line with retzon haBorei and Emes. (The usual Yeshivish
> model.)
> 
> 2- HQBH gives siyata dishmaya to the tzadiq who takes on caring for the
> community. (The usual Chassidish model.)
> 
> 3- Actually, there is no promise of doing any better than if one would
> ask any other genius. BUT, with the loss of melukhah, leadership went to
> Sanhedrin, and with the loss of the Sanhedrin, leadership goes to the
> current rabbinate. It's an obligation in how to run a community, and
> doesn't come with any special mechanism for success. (R' Dovid Cohen,
> and RYBS's haTzitzi vehaChoshen, but RYBS apparently walked away from
> DT in general when he left Agudah.)
> 
> #3 also differs in only justifying seeking DT on communal questions, and
> not necessarily personal ones.

#4 All true knowledge is in the Torah, and finding it is a matter of 
making non-obvious connections.  Therefore someone who has absorbed 
enough of it to do so can find the correct answer to anything, though he 
may not be able to explain how he did it.

-- 
Zev Sero                May 2017, with its *nine* days of Chanukah,
zev at sero.name           be a brilliant year for us all