Q&A: Source for the Lesson
Source for the Lesson
Question
Hello Rabbi, in one of the recent lessons the Rabbi mentioned (I think it was about halakhic positivism, but I’m not sure) Tosafot’s question about deciding the dispute between Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel by a heavenly voice, even though we do not listen to one… You said there is another Tosafot that presents the problem of the dispute regarding the ruling, on the matter of a majority of heads and a majority of legs. Searching the Responsa Project didn’t lead me to any such Tosafot. Could the Rabbi write the source?
And on another matter, regarding the Rabbi’s view of the laws of logic (nobody legislated them, etc.), would the Rabbi agree that in effect you are claiming that they are ‘necessary existents’? And therefore any question about their existence has to take into account the mode of their existence, which is completely different from ours (the expression ‘necessary existent’ is somewhat parallel to a familiar phrasing of the Rabbi’s, “they simply are”)
Answer
The problem of the dispute between Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel, and the relation to the heavenly voice, is explained in Tosafot, s.v. “Here,” Eruvin 6b (“Beit Shammai are sharper”). As for following the majority in a religious court across the generations, quite a few halakhic decisors have discussed this. See Sefer HaChinukh, commandment 78, and Minchat Chinukh there, section 1, and Shulchan Arukh, Choshen Mishpat 18:1 and the commentaries there (Pitchei Teshuvah and Sha’arei Mishpat, among others).
I didn’t understand the question about the laws of logic.