How is the scope of legitimate halachic diversity…
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How is the scope of legitimate halachic diversity established?
Halacha it is not a monolith. Many people claim to be committed to halacha. But if you ask them a question of the kind “What ought a Jew to do in a certain situation – a halachic question, that is – you could get contradicting answers. For example, “Should a Jewish man don tefillin on chol ha-moed?”, “Can one eat before shacharit?”, etc. Different Jews, all of whom say they are committed to Halacha, will tell you contradicting things.
Commonly, these opposing views are all seen to be valid. The “Orthodox” position is effectively, “pick any ‘Orthodox’ community, and consistently follow their version of halacha". A Litvish Jew would never eat before shacharit, but might not consider it a sin that the Lubavitcher does. The Lubavitcher wouldn’t dare wrap tefillin on chol ha-moed, but would not consider it a transgression that his Yekkish counterpart does. The Yekke would abstain from shaving the entire Three Weeks, but would not rebuke his Yemenite brother from freshening up with a haircut for the Sabbath during the Three Weeks. Etc etc.
However, even within the room for disagreement, everyone has their limits. Even though the Litvak would not view his Lubavitcher friend’s eating before shacharit as a sin – he may certainly view his (very!) modern orthodox counterpart’s "partnership minyan” as a great transgression. Therefore, we can see that even within the “orthodox” world, no-one agrees upon a finite, fixed set of legitimate, contradicting opinions.
Obviously, the above means no one will actually be able to answer my question. But I still ask those committed to Halacha — what do you consider within the scope? And how do you decide that?
FWIW, my uneducated opinion is that Halacha is purely teleological, i.e., it is what it becomes. What is halachically permissible is what has proven to institutionally stand the test of time. You could view this sociologically, or as G-d guiding the Jewish people (as I believe the Ramchal said: G-d, the Torah, and the Jewish people are One).
#religion
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Halacha it is not a monolith. Many people claim to be committed to halacha. But if you ask them a question of the kind “What ought a Jew to do in a certain situation – a halachic question, that is – you could get contradicting answers. For example, “Should a Jewish man don tefillin on chol ha-moed?”, “Can one eat before shacharit?”, etc. Different Jews, all of whom say they are committed to Halacha, will tell you contradicting things.
Commonly, these opposing views are all seen to be valid. The “Orthodox” position is effectively, “pick any ‘Orthodox’ community, and consistently follow their version of halacha". A Litvish Jew would never eat before shacharit, but might not consider it a sin that the Lubavitcher does. The Lubavitcher wouldn’t dare wrap tefillin on chol ha-moed, but would not consider it a transgression that his Yekkish counterpart does. The Yekke would abstain from shaving the entire Three Weeks, but would not rebuke his Yemenite brother from freshening up with a haircut for the Sabbath during the Three Weeks. Etc etc.
However, even within the room for disagreement, everyone has their limits. Even though the Litvak would not view his Lubavitcher friend’s eating before shacharit as a sin – he may certainly view his (very!) modern orthodox counterpart’s "partnership minyan” as a great transgression. Therefore, we can see that even within the “orthodox” world, no-one agrees upon a finite, fixed set of legitimate, contradicting opinions.
Obviously, the above means no one will actually be able to answer my question. But I still ask those committed to Halacha — what do you consider within the scope? And how do you decide that?
FWIW, my uneducated opinion is that Halacha is purely teleological, i.e., it is what it becomes. What is halachically permissible is what has proven to institutionally stand the test of time. You could view this sociologically, or as G-d guiding the Jewish people (as I believe the Ramchal said: G-d, the Torah, and the Jewish people are One).
#religion
source
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