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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>From: Kenneth Miller via Avodah
<avodah@lists.aishdas.org><BR><BR>>> We have discussed the idea that
a posek may sometimes choose a psak based on what "seems right" to him, and then
he will find sources to support that conclusion. But if I remember correctly,
this is usually done in the case of *new* questions, where there is little
precedent to draw upon.<BR><BR>But that's not what's happening here. This is a
case where the Shulchan Aruch paskened very clearly in one direction, and this
approach went uncontested through centuries of acharonim. Then something
changed.... </FONT></DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent"
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<DIV><BR>Why aren't we rejecting these revisionist poskim out of hand? </DIV>
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<DIV>--Akiva Miller</FONT></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV>It seems to me we are using the words "psak" and "poskim" too
loosely. If it's psak you want, I think all sources, rishonim and
acharonim, agree that marital intercourse is always mutar (assuming
the usual, the wife is not a nidah, it's not forced, it's not Yom
Kippur, etc). What we are really talking about here is hashkafa, not
psak -- even if it is in the Shulchan Aruch. What frequency is
optimum? Surely that is at least partly subjective, and any of the various
sources that apparently disagree with each other can be drawn upon when
you're looking for something to back up what your gut tells you is right.
I can easily see a modern day rav or Torah mentor varying his answers depending
on the circumstances of the wife and husband who are asking him for advice, as
well as accepted societal norms. Also it seems to me that with all
the talk about minimizing this-worldly pleasure -- which in general is a
Torah-dik thing to do -- we are also losing sight of the husband's obligation of
onah. For a wife, physical closeness is tied to emotional closeness and it
is often not, strictly speaking, a this-worldly pleasure but a real
emotional need, which a husband has at least some obligation to fulfill.</DIV>
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<DIV><FONT lang=0 color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><B><BR>--Toby Katz<BR>t613k@aol.com</FONT><FONT lang=0 color=#ffffff
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PTSIZE="10"><BR>=============</B><BR><BR><BR>-------------------------------------------------------------------</FONT></DIV></DIV>
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