[Avodah] Merchavyah

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Jan 03, 2018 at 06:26:41PM -0500, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
: A "doubt" is what happens when you've done your best to figure out the
: situation, and you can't decide which way to go. So, for example, a
: person who came across several authoritative texts, some of which
: spelled "merchavyah" as one word and some spelled it as two, IF he was
: unaware of this Gemara, then he would count up his texts and follow
: the rov.

If the gemara is no good to resolve a safeiq, it's no good to avoid
it to begin with.

I was suggesting that a kosher seifer Torah is defined by rov girsa'os,
regardless of other sources and testimonies.

This is in parallel to my belief that knowing what Chazal's zeisim were
like through evidence found by archeologists in places like Masada
doesn't eliminate needing to deal with pesaqim that were nispashtos
based on much larger shiurim.

Halakhah can and does drift, and is supposed to. Like my overused example
of the differences in the mizbeiach between bayis rishon and bayis
sheini. Anshei Keneses haGedolah knew that what they were requiring
for nisuch was impossible in bayis rishon, and by their pesaq no one
from Shelomo to the first churban -- and possibly even the Mishkan! --
was yotzei nisuch. Meanwhile (I argued, but others disagreed), by the
pesaqim of bayis rishon, bayis sheini's mizbeiach with holes in it
was the problematic one, and nisuch down that hole was not necessarily
kosher. "Problematic" and "not necessarily" because I have no reason
to believe it was outright discussed. But still, AKhG presumed kulos no
one relied on until them as well.

So, knowing what a kosher Tehillim was in Chazal's day may not mean
that's what is kosher today. But...

How is this a halachic question again? How is a copy of Tehillim kosher
or pasul? The kavanah and pronunciation are unchanged, no? It's important
to know what the pasuq actually says, but is it a halachic question
at all?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Weeds are flowers too
micha at aishdas.org        once you get to know them.
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