On second-order rulings and forced interpretations

Rabbi, do you remember when you wrote in the Shabbat supplement in response to a discussion about the ruling issued by the rabbis of the “Beit Hillel” organization on the recitation of Kaddish for orphans by women? And that the rabbis of “Beit Hillel” are wrong in that they follow a ruling from the “Second Order” and that if they do so, then their opponents are right in their criticisms of the interpretation of the sources they cite and therefore they should rule from the “First Order” and say that the rulings on the matter were made against a background of reality that is not necessarily relevant?

So here in the latest issue there is an interview between Yair Sheleg and Amnon Shapira and Yair Sheleg asks him exactly this question regarding the booklet he published a long time ago regarding a mixed youth movement to begin with and Yair Sheleg claims to him that the interpretation of the sources he cites is forced and he asks him why he doesn’t simply put on the table the claim that these sources speak of a reality different from ours and therefore are irrelevant [in his opinion of course]. To my amazement Amnon Shapira really didn’t deny this and he simply claimed that the target audience that the booklet is supposed to convince is “the 16-17 year olds who the sociological language doesn’t speak to, but only the Halacha” and therefore claims must be made that will speak to them.

I was actually quite amazed – in Amnon Shapiro’s strategy, what he is actually saying is that this is deliberate manipulation and that his use of “second-order case law” is not because he thinks it is correct, but purely for marketing and propaganda purposes.

What I don’t understand is whether he thinks the potential readers of the booklet are complete idiots who won’t notice that this is an unreliable interpretation of the sources, and what will the “16-17 year olds” to whom the booklet is aimed say after they read what his signature indicates about his pulp in this interview?

Your friend Nadav Shnerb wrote in his comments in the Shabbat supplement that Makor Rishon is the first source in several cases, which is what really annoys him about liberal religious people, who instead of putting what they think on the table, try to make up stories in the air and come up with a forced interpretation of the sources in a dishonest way.

I was amazed that the bully in question, Amnon Shapiro, still admits it almost outright…