Q&A: A Prophet’s Temporary Ruling
A Prophet’s Temporary Ruling
Question
By a prophet’s instruction, one may—and must—transgress words of the Torah, provided that he instructs only for the moment and not permanently. Is the definition of a temporary ruling simply anything that is not forever? Could the prophet say: for the next thousand years it is permitted to offer sacrifices on private altars? Or could he make it depend on something that might cease, and say: every day that the sun rises, it is permitted to offer sacrifices on private altars. Would that still be considered a temporary ruling, or is there some uncrossable measure of time, like a short-lived matter, such that if he instructed for a long period, then even though he did not uproot a commandment from the Torah, he still could not do so (and the prophet would also be punished)?
Answer
It is impossible to set a sharp line in matters like these. Even in life-threatening cases there is no fixed line, contrary to what you wrote. Where did you derive that from? There is a responsum of Rav Moshe Feinstein that tries, based on his own reasoning, to draw a line, but there is no real basis for it.
There are halakhic contexts in which any fixed period of time is called temporary, such as in the Talmudic passage in Keritot regarding a bill of divorce (a condition of permanence, for example: on condition that you never go to your father’s house). There the medieval authorities wrote that even a condition for a thousand years is not considered permanent. But in life-threatening situations that is certainly not so (obviously, if we are talking about an entire lifetime, that is a lasting life and not a temporary one).
By simple reasoning, I would say that as long as the ruling is limited to a relevant period of time (that is, he sets a span of time that is reasonable in relation to the matter at hand), it is a temporary ruling.
I now recall that regarding Rabbeinu Gershom’s ban, those who follow Maharik said (see Beit Yosef, Even HaEzer, sec. 1) that it lasted until the end of the fifth millennium, and when that passed, the halakhic decisors renewed it automatically.