Q&A: Ruling According to Ethnic Community?
Ruling According to Ethnic Community?
Question
Why, as a Sephardi, am I obligated to follow Sephardic halakhic rulings rather than the ruling that seems most correct to me, as in matters of thought?
I’m speaking, for example, about a case where I studied the topic, and it really seems to me more correct to rule like the Rema, for example. Why do I have to act like the Shulchan Arukh and not according to the truth as far as I understood it?
After all, all I want is to do what is true, so why am I bound to a ruling that I did not choose as my own?
Answer
You are really not obligated at all.
On the contrary: if you have a position, you should do what you think. When you do not have a position, you follow custom, and then Ashkenazim follow the Rema and Sephardim follow the Mechaber.
All this is unrelated in any way to matters of thought, regarding which there is no issue of authority at all.
Discussion on Answer
Indeed, the accepted approach is not like this, but this is my view. They also have no sources, and I at least have reasoning.
“Do not forsake” deals with customs. But when I have a halakhic position of my own, I must act accordingly. Custom is meant for situations in which I do not have a position. About this the Jerusalem Talmud writes: “If you do not know, O fairest among women, go your way in the footsteps of the flock, and pasture your kids beside the shepherds’ dwellings.” If the Jewish law is uncertain in your hands (“if you do not know”), follow the custom (“in the footsteps of the flock, beside the shepherds’ dwellings”). There is no logic in obligating me to commit transgressions (according to my view) just because my community thinks these are not transgressions.
The accepted approach does not recognize the value of autonomy, according to which a person should act in accordance with his own understanding.
See my article on authority and autonomy in halakhic ruling.
I understand, so a few questions: on what basis does the Rabbi say this? What are his sources?
Because from what I’ve heard, the consensus is דווקא the opposite of what the Rabbi says—that a person must accept Sephardic rulings if he was born Sephardi, and vice versa, and there are no changes on this issue no matter what his opinion is.
I also heard one rabbi say that a person is obligated to follow the laws of his community because of the verse, “Do not forsake your mother’s teaching.” What would the Rabbi say about that verse?