[Mesorah] She'ata / Sha'ata

[Mandel, Seth]

My fault for not making myself clear.
The point I was intending to make was that if the Godol has never studied the issues (such as training for mila or safrus), he cannot pasken on the matter.
Most rabbonim and Jews have never studied historical Hebrew linguistics.  Indeed, there is no textbook, and the mss. and old siddurim are hard to get; the mss. of the Mishna are hard to get; and even studying the development of different girsa'ot in the T'NaKh, although available, are in books not in most yeshiva libraries.  I never saw Luach Eres of R. Yaakov Emden in any yeshiva, although I am sure some of them have it somewhere.
Since I am interested in these matters, I have discussed them with many Rabbonim, including some of those in the pantheon of G'dolim as determined by the Agudah.  Most of them evinced interest, but none had any background in the matter.  When I discussed morid hageshem with RYBS, he knew a lot about who used which girsa, but knew nothing about the fact that goshem was an emendation by a printed T'NaKh, and that all the mss. had geshem.
A rov who has not studied an issue can only say "eini yodea'."  But many over the course of generations did not even know that they did not know.

Rabbi Seth Mandel
Rabbinic Coordinator
The Orthodox Union
11 Broadway, New York, NY  10004

Voice (212) 613-8330     Fax (212) 613-0718     e-mail mandels at ou.org
________________________________________
From: mesorah-bounces at lists.aishdas.org [mesorah-bounces at lists.aishdas.org] on behalf of kennethgmiller at juno.com [kennethgmiller at juno.com]
Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2012 8:17 PM
To: mesorah at aishdas.org
Subject: Re: [Mesorah] She'ata / Sha'ata

R' Seth Mandel wrote:

> Saying that a godol does not know linguistics is not insulting
> his gadlus.  It is akin to saying that a godol does not know
> shechita or safrus.  The example I use for chareidim is to ask
> if they would let their RY do mila on their son.

This made a lot of sense when I first saw it, but not after I pondered it a bit.

The gadol and the RY and the posek do not actually *DO* the shechita or the safrus or the mila. And the reason why is because these acts require specific training for the hand.

But the shochet and the sofer and the mohel *DO* bring their questions to the rav for a ruling. "Should I do it this way or that way?" - This is the province of the rav. The rav may consult with an expert shochet, and expert sofer, and an expert mohel, and ask what are the common practices or the efficient methods, but the final decision on right and wrong belongs to the rav.

If so, then the linguist can offer a great deal of insight to the rav, just as the technician can explain his Shabbos-mode device to the rav, and the rav will still be the one to decide what to do.

>From this perspective, my preference is to daven the way the rav tells me, and not the way the linguist says. No matter how correct and sincere the linguist might be, it is the rav who is to perform the shikul hadaas of deciding whether this factor is more or less important than that factor, and so on.

Akiva Miller

____________________________________________________________
53 Year Old Mom Looks 33
The Stunning Results of Her Wrinkle Trick Has Botox Doctors Worried
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3131/4f419f3be0cf911c60f0st04vuc
_______________________________________________
Mesorah mailing list
Mesorah at lists.aishdas.org
http://lists.aishdas.org/listinfo.cgi/mesorah-aishdas.org