[Avodah] machloquet - good or bad

[Ben Waxman]

Summary of a talk given on Shabbat and then my commentary:

According to the Rambam, machloquet is a fashla, something we don't 
want. It started when students didn't properly learn from their 
teachers. Had they done so, Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai would not have 
had so many disagreements.

Rav Kook and Rebbe Nachman had a much more positive approach to 
machloquet. According to RK, when say that talmidei chachamim bring 
peace to the world, it is because they know how to argue with someone 
yet respect him and his opinion. A talmid chacham knows how to be 
inclusive, how to allow for and even want other opinions.

According to RN, machloquet is a reenactment of Creation. God created 
the world through tzimmzum, allowing space for others. When there is one 
opinion only, that opinion fills the entire space so to speak. When 
someone else comes up with a different opinion, the first person has to 
contract to allow room for the new idea. This in turn allows for even 
more opinions.

Ad kan the class.

Today we don't do machloquet very well or at least we struggle with it. 
We try and either destroy the other side or we say that the other 
position doesn't really exist.

This week a rav made a statement about Rav Lichtenstein tz'l and his 
position regarding (a very minor) women's issue. The easiest thing to do 
if one wanted to know RL's opinion about something is to pick up the 
phone and ask his sons, his daughter, an extremely close talmid. Instead 
the rav simply heard something and made a conclusion. When he was shown 
that his conclusion was incorrect, he pontificated that RL really didn't 
accept the more liberal position, he simply gave in to pressure.

Occam's razor says that if RL said something and did something, it is 
because RL believed that to be the right thing to do. There is no need 
to come up with any explanation. Simply accept that there is a 
machloquet in the matter.

Similarly, there is a mechina whose rosh yeshiva said things about 
women's role in society which people in the left wing MO world don't 
accept. No one says that anyone needs to send their kid there, but to 
try and work to shut down the mechina? You can't accept that someone, 
who BTW probably agrees with the LW on a whole bunch of other subjects, 
differs with you? You want to shut them down? Come on people, get a grip.