[Avodah] Im lo nevi'im bnei nevi'im heim

[Ben Bradley]

''I do not know the sense in which you, or R' Hutner, intent to apply
that quote.  I do know that whenever I hear that quote, I never hear
it used to justify practices that merely seem to have no basis in
halakha; it is used only to justify widespread practices that clearly
violate undisputed halakhoth.....Hillel, however, only used those words when he did not
know the halakha; he never used those words when he knew the halakha.
If you want to justify widespread practices that clearly violate
undisputed halakhoth, gei gezinteheit, but I hope that you will not
misapply Hillel's words when you do....''

I am glad to state with a clear conscience that I do not want to justify practices which violate halacha. I am quite certain I can speak for R' Hutner likewise.
Having cleared that up, R' Hutner's context is discussing the gemara's foreknowledge of the permanent nature of Chanuka in the yemos hamoshiach given the possibility that a future, greater Beis Din could cancel it. His answer is that its acceptance by the whole nation makes it immutable. In that context Im lo nevi'im, bnei nevi'im heim means that acceptance by the whole nation gives obligatory force to a takana beyond that which depends on the stature of the Beis Din which issued it, and not at all as used by whoever you've been listening to. (I should add that he uses the phrase essentially in passing and his argument does not depend on it in the slightest) . I think that was clear in the original post and indicated by its original title 'Existing practice driving halacha'.


Even clearer, I think, was that I was addressing recurrent threads on the list about the place of existing practice in detemining psak eg Mishna Brurah vs Aruch HaShulchan in many places, and in particular R Joel Rich's probing questions on the subject.
I was not per se dealing with the meaning of the phrase you titled your response with.
Please do refer to those threads for further context. And to R' Hutner in Pachad Yitzchak.
Kol tuv
Ben

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