[Avodah] psak

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Mar 13, 2019 at 08:50:44AM +0000, Rich, Joel via Avodah wrote:
:                                 This could have also been expressed as a
: two circle Venn diagram (but where in the intersection do you land?) It
: occurs to me we need a third circle (or maybe this is better expressed
: as two magnetic fields pulling on a piece of metal = the poseik), which
: represents what other poskim would find acceptable. This would explain
: R' Schachter's reference to poskim we disregard (e.g., Rogatchover,
: R'Avi Weiss?) because they are something like "too creative" (me =
: outside consensus of other poskim?)

Then there are the people who are so creative, they are playing by the
wrong set of rules. Whereas I think you are focusing on going too far
with the valid rule set.

Before either of your examples, Rabbi Meir (or R Nehorai, R Nechemia
or R Elazar ben Arakh, if one of those is his real name. - Eiruvin 13b)
That is, when he is indeed called Rav Meir and is not stam mishnah, or
the attribution is his possible real name, or is Acheirim. So, Rabbi
Meir from the time in his life when he rose to the sobriquet "Rabbi
Meir" until his participation in the attempted coup against R Shimon
b Gamliel.

This is why halakhah keRabbi Meir begezeirosav (Kesuvos 15) but iin
general, we have the rule of Rav Acha bar Chanina (same sugya in
Eiruvin):
	It is revealed and known to the One Who "Spoke" and
	the world was that there was no one in R Meir's generation
	who was like him. And why didn't they establish the halakhah
	like him? Because lo yakhlu chaveiro la'amod al sof da'ato.
	For he could say al tamei tahor, and bring proof, and al
	tahor tamei and bring proof.

Rashi: They couldn't understand which of hus rulings were correct.

R Meir was just too bright for them to follow.

(Or maybe, he was just too much into lomdus, and when he was done they
could see both sides. <grin>)

If it wasn't for RAbC I would have simply said the reason why we don't
hold like R Meir is because when we do hold like him, it's a stam
mishnah. The only times we use his name is when we don't.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             A sick person never rejects a healing procedure
micha at aishdas.org        as "unbefitting." Why, then, do we care what
http://www.aishdas.org   other people think when dealing with spiritual
Fax: (270) 514-1507      matters?              - Rav Yisrael Salanter