Q&A: Policy Considerations in Halakhic Rulings
Policy Considerations in Halakhic Rulings
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I wanted to know your opinion regarding the place of “policy considerations” in halakhic rulings. Both considerations that are used to be stringent (a “slippery slope,” and the like) and considerations that lead to lenient rulings (how Jewish law will appear in the eyes of secular people / the world, the public will not be able to live up to an overly stringent ruling, “better that they remain inadvertent sinners,” and so on).
A. Do you think there is any place at all for a halakhic decisor to take such policy considerations into account, or should one rely only on the formal halakhic sources? And if such considerations should be taken into account, what weight do they carry within a halakhic ruling? My impression is that in our generation decisors give them much more room within halakhic discussion than in earlier generations. Do you share that impression as well?
B. Is it correct to say that, insofar as such policy considerations should be taken into account, rulings on important and substantial matters ought to be entrusted to more veteran and experienced decisors rather than to young Torah scholars, no matter how great they may be in Torah learning?
Thank you.
Answer
It is hard to spell this out in this medium. I do so in the third book of the theological trilogy I am currently writing. I’ll answer you briefly and in general terms.
In my opinion, such considerations have no place at all, and for a technical reason. The relationship between a halakhic decisor and the person asking is different from what people usually think. The decisor is supposed to lay out before the questioner the various options, with their respective costs, along with his own recommendations, but the questioner is the one who must decide and choose how to act in practice.
Therefore the policy question remains at the doorstep of the questioner, not the decisor. The decisor can only recommend or not recommend to the questioner how to act. The decision belongs to the questioner.
Policy can play a role in decisions of the Sanhedrin when they enact or decree a new prohibition, or of the local halakhic authority who rules for the people of his place (because there he has the authority to decide, unlike an ordinary questioner and decisor).