[Avodah] chazakot

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Jan 18, 2018 at 06:55:34PM +0000, Rich, Joel via Avodah wrote:
: Is anyone aware of any social psychology experiments which would
: inform on the current status of chazakot of chazal? (e.g., ein adam
: choteh v'lo lo, ein adam meiz panav lfnei bal chovo)

The BY (EH 17) as explained by the Sefei Chemed (Kelalim 1:388) says
that we can no longer rely on ein eishah mei'izah paneha lifnei baalahh,
and should only invoke it lechumerah.

(I seem to recall the AhS recently (first 37 se'ifim of CM) saying the
same about mei'iz panav lifnei ba'al chovo, but now I can't find it.)

In contrast to RYBS's objection to R' Rackman's position that "tav
lemeisiv" doesn't apply. If you recall, I had first thought that his
objection was spoecific to tav lemeisiv, since it can be taken as an
expression of "ve'el isheikh teshuqaseikh", Chavah's onesh in Bereishis
3:16.

However, R' Ari Kahn put a transcription up on line
<http://arikahn.blogspot.com/2013/03/rabbi-soloveitchik-talmud-torah-and.html>:

    Let me add something that is very important: not only the halachos
    but also the chazakos which chachmei chazal have introduced are
    indestructible. We must not tamper, not only with the halachos,
    but even with the chazakos, for the chazakos of which chazal spoke
    rest not upon transient psychological behavioral patterns, but upon
    permanent ontological principles rooted in the very depth of the
    human personality, in the metaphysical human personality, which
    is as changeless as the heavens above. Let us take for example
    the chazaka that I was told about: the chazaka tav l'meisiv tan du
    mil'meisiv armalo has absolutely nothing to do with the social and
    political status of women in antiquity. This chazaka is based not
    upon sociological factors, but upon a verse in breishis...

So it seems leshitaso, the fact that this particular chazaqah is based in
a pasuq makes it normal, an example of the general "the chazakos of which
chazal spoke rest not upon transient psychological behavioral patterns".

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             There's only one corner of the universe
micha at aishdas.org        you can be certain of improving,
http://www.aishdas.org   and that's your own self.
Fax: (270) 514-1507      	    - Aldous Huxley