New on the site: Michi-bot. An intelligent assistant based on the writings of Rabbi Michael Avraham.

slander

asked 8 months ago

Do you think there can be formal authority in a specific type of halacha, such as whether Fetz Chaim has formal authority in the laws of slander because his laws have been accepted (at least in the Haredi world)?


Discover more from הרב מיכאל אברהם

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Leave a Reply

0 Answers
מיכי Staff answered 8 months ago
In principle, yes. But I don’t think his words were really accepted as binding and there’s no disputing it. He was adamant that he compiled the material, but it’s not about formal authority. Beyond that, I think that even if we view this as authoritative acceptance, there is a consideration of acceptance in error here. The Rabbi turned recommendations and intentions into binding laws. If we come to the conclusion that he was wrong in this, there is no need to act like him except in those things that we also agree are law but that we disagree with in law.

Discover more from הרב מיכאל אברהם

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

לביא replied 8 months ago

The Talmud is also a collection of laws and recommendations.

The reason why the Talmud is perhaps not disputed is that the entire text is full of disputes over almost every law and every argument, and what is believed can almost always be arranged somehow with the sea of text. I didn't understand how one can receive authority from the dispute? Unless the rabbi meant only where the Talmud writes 'and halachta', but in most places the halachah was discontinued at a later period.

The question here is actually interesting because the Rabbi wrote a book that ruled the halachah and was accepted by the general public, hence the public has given him authority for several generations even if today someone wants to dispute some other laws.

מיכי Staff replied 8 months ago

I have argued this extensively in the past. The Talmud is not disputed because it was accepted. The fact that it is laden with controversy and that many opinions can be included in it is true, and for good reason. And yet this is the framework of the discussion, and if you have a problem with the Talmud, your opinion is rejected. Evidence for every opinion is provided by the Talmud. Therefore, there is certainly significance in accepting the Talmud as a framework despite the controversy.
Things that are not halacha that were included in the Talmud really have no authority.
With the Chacham, he cannot decide that something that is not halacha is halacha. And if he did decide so, it is a decision that has no validity. And as mentioned, he was also not accepted as an absolute formal authority.

לביא replied 8 months ago

Thanks for clarifying the authoritative framework.

Even the Talmudic sages could not decide that something that was not halacha was halacha. But after the Talmud was signed and accepted as authority, it was accepted and became halacha. Am I wrong?

מיכי Staff replied 8 months ago

The Talmud was given the authority of the Sanhedrin, and they can establish regulations (but not arbitrarily determine that something is halakha if it is not. This is an issue of misunderstanding the mitzvah of listening to the words of the sages). This does not exist in the Ch’ach.

Leave a Reply

Back to top button