[Avodah] Chazakot

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Sep 19, 2023 at 05:08:11PM -0400, Joel Rich via Avodah wrote:
> I'm told a book by a sofer recommends not relying on the chazaka of the S"A
> (or R SZA) but rather a cyclic checking of tfillin/mezuzuot (based on his
> own experiences). Question -- what is the algorithm to determine when a
> chazaka should be reconsidered?

There are (at least) two things we call chazaqah:

Chazaqah demei'iqara: the presumption that the state of something stays
the same until we see it changed.

Chazaqah diSvara: a law of nature or human nature, something we can assume
for reasons muich like rov.

When RYBS famously objected to reconsidering tav lemeisav tandu milemeisav
armelu, that is a chazaqah disvara. And while the actual words were about
not reconsidering ANY chazaqah disvara, his students (including RALichtenstein)
are not clear that was actually his intent. It could be that this chazaqah
in particular is hard to reconsider because

(1) as RYBS himself says, there is a pasuq "ve'el isheikh tehuqaseikh"
which must be true at some level regardless of what the modern woman may
think on a conscious level. Hashem said so, after all.

(2) RAL noted that the majority of RYBS's argument was not a chazaqah,
but the amount of halakhah -- most of Yevamos and half of EhE -- that
presume this particular chazaqah. If such a workaround could work, it's
a bit hard to say it was left for us to work it.

In which case, RAL would be okay with reconsidering a chazaqah disvara
when norms change. And RAL held RYBS would have as well.

Where the two kinds of chazaqah overlap (other than both being
presumptions) is ika rei'usa. There are limits to how likely of a change
we can ignore and still say the previous halachic state applies. And so,
we go back to looking at norms, rules of thumb about nature and human
nature as a factor in determining how long one can rely on a chazaqah
demei'iqara.

We say that a mezuzah that was checked and deemed to be kosher remains
kosher -- a textbook chazaqah demei'iqara.

The beraisa (Yuma 11a; I think the SA that RJR is referring to is the
quote of this beraisa at YD 291:1) says that despite this, we should
check our mezuzos twice every seven years. (Whether that means just less
than seven years between or once every 3-1/2 years is up to your poseiq.)

It is this trying to avoid the rei'usa that RSZA reconsiders, given
our current ink-making abilities. More than that, RSZA pasqened that
checking it itself problematic; rolling and unrolling the kelaf is the
cause of more pesulim. Leshitaso, not checking is *less* of a rei'usa!

The AhS (s' 1) reports that given the damp climate where he was
(Novhardok), he checked his mezuzos annually. (But RSZA could note
that that too was before factory-made dio.)

My own LOR made a chiluq between indoors and outdoors, believing that
weather is enough of a cause of pesulim for RSZA's reasoning not to
apply. At least, given the rain patterns and annual temperature changes
of where I live. Something RSZA may not have considered when talking to
people in Yerushalayim.

But essentially, both the SA and RSZA are telling you to rely on a
chazaqa demei'iqara, which isn't about norms or situations. Just about
what halachic state was this mezuzah in when a person last determined
its halachic state. There is little to reconsider.

Whereas determining whether the odds of a problem raise to the level of
ika rei'usa is ALL metzi'us, and not the actual chazaqah. So I don't
think anyone would put that on the "don't reconsider" side of a rule.

GCT!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 If you want others to be happy,
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