Q&A: On the Slippery Slope
On the Slippery Slope
Question
Good evening.
If I understand you correctly, you keep emphasizing again and again that a halakhic decisor must not set aside his own view because of extra-halakhic arguments, such as “the slippery slope,” and you call this phenomenon “the slippery slope of the slippery slope.” But after all, we find dozens of extra-halakhic arguments in the Talmud. What is the idea of “a fence around the Torah” if not that? “This matter should not be stated in the presence of an ignoramus” (even though that itself is disputed). “The Sages reinforced their words more than those of the Torah,” and many more. How do your words fit with the fact that there is a very conspicuous approach in the Talmud and among the medieval authorities (Rishonim) of using extra-halakhic arguments?
Answer
First, even if this was done in the past, I don’t think that necessarily means that we too should do it.
Beyond that, I did not express blanket opposition to slippery-slope arguments. Each case has to be judged on its own merits. Almost all rabbinic laws are a kind of slippery slope (fences and decrees).
Discussion on Answer
The Sages did not hide from ‘the public’ that they had made a fence around the Torah. The fact that a certain thing is a decree or an enactment is explained in the Mishnah, in the baraitot, and in the Talmud, which were intended for study by the entire people.
Best regards, Shatz
Shatz, not always. There are quite a few disputes over whether a certain law is Torah-level or rabbinic. In such cases there is no clear statement in the primary source, and that is why a dispute arises. And indeed, all those places are difficult for Maimonides’ view that a religious court that decrees or enacts something and does not say that it is rabbinic transgresses “do not add.”
Shatz, “it should not be said in the presence of an ignoramus” assumes they won’t know. Today, with Google, that’s almost impossible. And that should be obvious.
And take into account that in the past there was no media or internet, so there was less chance that the public would realize that this was really just a fence or something like that.