[Avodah] Why I support the private kashrut initiative of Tzohar rabbis

[Ben Waxman]

Placing this article in Avodah because Rav Melamed uses the model of the 
70 elders to show how differences in community leadership should be handled.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/22250

A few critical paragraphs:

But when groups and institutions try to impose their opinion on members 
of another circle, and abolish the status of their rabbis (and to 
boycott them from becoming rabbinical judges and rabbis) we are no 
longer speaking of a situation where the rabbis of Tzohar should also 
establish a kashrut organization, but rather a situation in which it is 
almost obligatory for them to establish one, just like other accepted 
rabbinic organizations, in order to give halachic and Torah expression 
to their part in the Torah. If they do not, then they are similar to a 
prophet who suppresses his prophecy, or as our Sages said: ” Yea, all 
her slain are a mighty host’ — this refers to a disciple who has 
attained the qualification to decide questions of law, and does not 
decide them” (Sotah 22a).

How Does a Difficult Dispute Develop?

At first, there is an argument over a focused halakhic issue. However, 
when an agreement is not reached, instead of agreeing to disagree and 
continuing to respect each other, one side thinks that the other has no 
authority to retain his position, because, essentially, his position is 
inferior, since he belongs to a liberal circle, or his position differs 
from that of most rabbis. Then, that same party departs from the 
particular halakhic issue they have debated, and moves on to a more 
acute arena, in which the main argument is that the rabbi against whom 
he is arguing with is not authorized to express a halachic position, for 
in any case, who appointed him to be a rabbi who can express a position 
at all?

Since this argument is not convincing enough, and the rabbi who is being 
attacked remains in his position, consequently we are now moving over to 
a dispute of a different magnitude – since we are no longer dealing with 
a person who rules on a matter without authority, but with a person who 
undermines the foundations of authority as a whole, and thus, it is 
compulsory to wage an all-out war against him…