[Avodah] Paskening from the sources

[Akiva Miller]

.
In the thread "birchat cohanim", R' Joel Rich asked if Ashkenazim in chu"l
should go out of their way to attend a Sefardi minyan in order to be
blessed by the Kohanim, which is not done in Ashkenazi minyanim. R' Isaac
Balbin offered some interesting sources on this question.

To me, this seems like a great example of the limits of paskening from
sources. There are certain questions -- and I am suggesting that this is
among them -- such that even with access to all conceivable printed
material, an AI or even a human might not realize that there are
sociological factors that should be taken into account.

For example: Suppose the Ratzon Hashem is that an Ashkenazi should indeed
seek out a Sefardic shul for this purpose. Why haven't we seen gedolim
recommending this, or even going themselves? [Maybe there are such cases,
but if so, it clearly has not caught on, as evidenced by the question.]
There are plenty of mixed neighborhoods where one could do this without
much trouble. My own shul has enough Sefardim to support a Sefardi minyan
on Shabbos and other occasions. One answer might be that if the poskim did
tell us to do this, it would hurt the Ashkenazi shuls to whatever extent.
And one would need a recognized leader to judge the priorities involved.

The ONLY point I'm trying to make here is that there are many questions -
and this is only one of them - where an answer CANNOT be gotten from any
sort of mechanical algorithm. The decider needs insight  into ideas that
previous authorities might not have suggested, and he needs the wisdom to
see the ramifications of his decision.

In short: I don't understand why there are so many articles about the
possibility of an AI Posek, and I'm very tired of it. I'm all in favor of
using computers to help with research, but to get answers? Ridiculous!

Akiva Miller
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