Q&A: Doubts in Jewish Law
Doubts in Jewish Law
Question
Hello Rabbi,
When a person is uncertain about a practical doubt that has halakhic implications (for example, whether he recited Grace after Meals or not), is there any significance to the “strength” of the doubt, or to the actual ratio between the two sides of the doubt?
Suppose I am unsure whether I recited Grace after Meals. According to Jewish law, I need to recite it because in a Torah-level doubt we rule stringently.
But if the doubt is not evenly balanced—I think there is a 90% chance that I already recited it, but I have a small 10% concern that I did not—does that have any significance? Is that still called a doubt? Does he go back and recite it?
Answer
It seems to me that a doubt is only an evenly balanced doubt; otherwise, we follow the majority. The question whether a majority is considered a doubt is discussed by the commentators regarding places where we find a special leniency or stringency in cases of doubt (such as doubt about ritual impurity in the public domain, doubt about orlah outside the Land of Israel, etc.).
Discussion on Answer
You can formulate it that way too (if you stick to the wording of “whoever separated is presumed to have separated from the majority”), but even without that there is a greater probability here (like the reasoning of the Rashba regarding a double doubt, that it derives from majority).
Where is the majority here? Is the claim that most people who are 90% sure they did something actually did it?