[Avodah] Shulchan Aruch Intent

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Feb 28, 2024 at 05:49:46AM +0200, Joel Rich via Avodah wrote:
> In the recent Hakira (34) there was an exchange concerning R Y Karo's
> authorial/intent in writing the S"A. R M Shapiro uses the introduction to
> the S"A to show " his purpose was to write a practical halachic work". R A
> Storch felt the purpose was, "a tool to remember the information contained
> in the Bet Yosef".

> I think R Shapiro's position is more widely held but I always wonder why
> then didn't the S"A stick more to apodictic laws rather than so many yesh
> omrims etc? Thoughts?

I thought it was the Cliff Notes to the BY. So, more like RAS's position.

Enough people thought as much for it to survive the Maharshal's and
Maharal's objections to codes. That by being preceded by the BY (and
Darkhei Moshe) and followed up by the standard Nosei Keilim, the final
Greater SA becomes part of the conversation down the generations rather
than reducing halakhah to a snapshot, a code.

Perhaps yeish omerim is a consequence of eilu va'eilu. The Mechaber or
Rama could have felt that both pesaqim are valid, even if they had a
preference for one.

We find this a lot in the AhS. Where he makes a strong argument for
one pesaq in one se'if, and a few se'ifim later he will explains how
people who hold the other way in the earlier se'if would pasqen in the
case now under discussion. I think that's why -- because he holds by
a range of valid pesaqim, and his preference for one of them is soft,
not to exclude the others.

-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 "'When Adar enters, we increase our joy'
http://www.aishdas.org/asp    'Joy is nothing but Torah.'
Author: Widen Your Tent       'And whoever does more, he is praiseworthy.'"
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF                   - Rav Dovid Lifshitz zt"l