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Receiving the Babylonian Talmud

שו”תCategory: Meta HalachaReceiving the Babylonian Talmud
asked 5 years ago

Hello Rabbi,
Do you think the necessity of accepting the conclusions of the Babylonian Talmud as a binding basis for halachic rulings is a principle of faith (part of lean theology), or is this actually another of your opinions as a posek (central as it may be)?
Does another autonomous umpire have the option of deciding that this principle does not bind him, or at least does not bind him in some cases?
Another rabbi can make arguments that disagree with your approach. For example, it can be argued that the acceptance of the Talmud by all Jewish communities did not really happen, similar to the “Shulchan Aruch” (and as proof we know today that the Ethiopian community did not accept it, and the early ones may not have been aware of this). Or alternatively, it can be argued that those who accepted the Talmud accepted it in matters of the laws that were customary in their day, and they certainly did not intend to oblige our generation to rule according to the Talmud in matters that they themselves did not imagine existed in the world (such as electricity, the Internet, organ transplants).
The exact argument is not that important, the question is more fundamental.
Regards.


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מיכי Staff answered 5 years ago
I think that’s true. What does necessity mean? If someone thinks differently, they will do differently. My opinion is decisive for me, not for him. I don’t think Ethiopian Jewry is relevant to this discussion. It’s one small community that was cut off and has no weight in relation to the general public. Your claim about things that did not exist in their time is irrelevant. We use the principles of the Talmud, not its bottom lines, and the principles are what determine even the new reality. Are you also suggesting riding horses today and not cars? Or maybe driving a car on Shabbat because the sages did not know what a car was?

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