<br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 10/24/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Arie Folger</b> <<a href="mailto:afolger@aishdas.org" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">afolger@aishdas.org
</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<br><br>> How can I answer Rabbi ABC? As a jew in need I request YOUR help!<br><br>I believe that the statements of RABC fail on the grounds of a lack of respect<br>and lack of consideration for individuals who were unquestionably among those
<br>who transmitted the Torah to us.<br><br>Let's face it, Judaism is alive, it isn't dug out and suddenly discovered in a<br>museum. To study halakhah without the highest regard for some of its greatest<br>transmittors displays a lack of yirat shamayim and is not very sensible,
<br>either. After all, just like in the aggadeta Hillel showed the candidate<br>convert that TSBP is inherently part of Torah, otherwise we wouldn't be able<br>to definitely identify the meaning of the letters and the language, so, too,
<br>we cannot truly approach TSBP and thus halakhah without the continuous<br>tradition PASSING THROUGH Tosafot, as well. What they and BaHaG and the<br>Tosefta posited is relevant to our understanding of TSBP.<br><br>This does not mean that one could never choose to disagree with one shittah
<br>and choose another shittah. It might even be possible, in some exceptional<br>circumstances, to come up with something altogether novel. But our positions<br>grow out of the common beit midrash of the ba'alei hamessorah.
<br><br>We should also care to add that if one claims that particular ba'alei<br>messorah, especially fairly important ones, were biased, where should he<br>stop? Why not posit that the Tannaim and Amoraim were biased, too? How about
<br>some major biblical figures? No, for there to exist any messorah, whatsoever,<br>we must accept that at least the major players were acting out of concern for<br>Torah, and not out of mysogynism or whatever other biases they may have had.
<br>This is one of the great differences between us, maaminim benei maaminim, and<br>Zacharias Fraenkel's historical positivist school of thought, which gave<br>birth to C.<br><br>KT,<br>--<br>Arie Folger<br><a href="http://www.ariefolger.googlepages.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
http://www.ariefolger.googlepages.com</a><br></blockquote></div><br>See a related story on how distrust of Masorah might play out in real life!<br><br>Blog: NishmaBlog
<br>
Post: The Fascinating History of Ananburg
<br>
Link: <a href="http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/2007/05/fascinating-history-of-ananburg.html" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/2007/05/fascinating-history-of-ananburg.html
</a>
<br><br clear="all">I agree with Arie Folger's points. But I am afraid I do not find them sufficiently convincing to win a debate on the matter<br><br>Also, I must confess that my replies to Zev Sero are similar. It is NOT that Zev SEro's responses are WRONG, the are just not convincing proof - [iow they are not dispositive].
<br><br>FIWIW - I have approached several prominent Rabbis who are not quite Gedolim but are near-GEdolim and they both tell me that Halacha nowadays is essentially based upon consensus - similar to the Shittos of Beis Yosef and Rema.
<br><br>The problem? There are SO many times that a practice taken for granted as normative gets tossed aside that to make the Shita of consensus as REQUIRED is itself nearly impossible to normative.<br><br>-- <br>Kol Tuv / Best Regards,
<br><a href="mailto:RabbiRichWolpoe@Gmail.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
RabbiRichWolpoe@Gmail.com</a><br>Please Visit: <br><a href="http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/</a>