Q&A: What Is the Difference Between Sephardim’s Acceptance of Maran’s Rulings and Acceptance of the Talmud
What Is the Difference Between Sephardim’s Acceptance of Maran’s Rulings and Acceptance of the Talmud
Question
Good week, Rabbi,
I wanted to ask: what is the difference between Sephardim’s acceptance of Maran’s rulings and acceptance of the Talmud? I know that in your view, acceptance of the Talmud is a binding acceptance, whereas acceptance of Maran’s rulings is only a custom, and where you have your own position, there is no obligation to follow Maran’s rulings (for Sephardim). But how is that different from acceptance of the Talmud? With regard to the Talmud as well, in a case where I have my own position, can I follow my own view against the Talmud? And what is the difference between these forms of acceptance?
Answer
It seems that in principle it is not different, but there is no such acceptance. His commentators disagree with him in quite a number of halakhot, and there are places where Sephardim do not accept his ruling.
Still, there is also room to distinguish between them in principle, since this is not an acceptance by the entirety of the Jewish people. If my apartment building accepts someone upon itself, would I be bound by that?
Discussion on Answer
I would suggest what Maimonides explained: that the Talmud is binding because it spread throughout all of Israel in the Diaspora, unlike local halakhic rulings that did not become widespread. Another point: sometimes it seems that the Talmud tries to identify the correct tradition, and not only the tradition accepted by the people, so in that respect too it is binding (closer to the days of the Sanhedrin). For example, in the question of Ethiopian Jews, who are obligated in the Oral Torah, but according to their tradition, and not necessarily according to the Talmud in every matter. That is my humble opinion.
They answered you well. This is not only a historical question. Go out and see what happens today. And therefore the textual version does not really matter, because we are dealing with the Talmud that has come down to us, not the Talmud that was composed back then (though this is not mathematics, and there is some room to clarify textual versions as well).
How can one know that the Jewish people as a whole accepted the Talmud? After all, even then there were all kinds of different groups. And even regarding the Talmud, there are things that were not accepted (for example, there are different places where they are not sure that the version is really the original version), and other problems.