[Avodah] klalei psak

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Mar 11, 2024 at 1:41pm Israel, R Danny Schoemann wrote:
>> R Ashar Weiss opens by making a contrast between Sepharadi Rishonim and
>> Baalei Tosafos. The Maharshal says the latter make shas into a "ball"
>> and they "rolled it from place to place", referring to how they will
>> understand one sugya in light of the other. While Sepharadi rishonim
>> stayed much closer to the geonim.

>> WADR to RAW, given comments in Teshuvos haRambam, I don't think the Rambam
>> felt all that compelled to follow the geonim.

>> Talmud Reclaimed, by R Shmuli Phillips (who is easily reachable on Facebook),
>> gave a different explanation of the Sepharadi position. They would take the
>> masqanah from the primary sugya on a topic. And if that means they ruled in
>> ways the Baalei Tosafos would deem inconsistent, so be it.

>> RSP feels that this makes the whole Brisker project suspect, as it is
>> looking for the Rambam's "ball" of Talmud, and the Rambam never tried
>> to make one.

> Another approach.

> I recently read a (Hebrew) 500+ page sefer titled "HaRif bein Sefarad
> l'Ashkenaz" by R' Emanuel Elalouf (rifyomi at gmail.com) of Har Nof.
> (Never heard of him before - nothing useful on Google.) He promotes a
> Rif Yomi program.

> His approach is that the Ashkenaz and Sefard psak diverged due to
> geopolitical reasons.

> Since the Geonim and the  "Spanish" Jews lived under the same rulers,
> they were able to communicate relatively easily. They would send their
> questions to Bavel, the Geonim would discuss it at the Yarchei Kalla
> and send back a response. (Since the mail route passed through Cairo,
> these Teshuvoth were copied while passing through and eventually
> landed in the Genizo, which is why we have copies of them.)
> As can be easily proved, the Geonim paskened each question on its own,
> irrelevant of prior psakim.

> Since Ashkenaz was under "enemy rule", there was no easy way for them
> to communicate with the Geonim. Communication was tedious and rare.
> That is what forced them to figure out new questions based on earlier
> psak and similar concepts. (The ball being rolled from place to
> place.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 The day you were born is the day G-d decided
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   that the world could not exist without you.
Author: Widen Your Tent                  - Rav Nachman of Breslov
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF