Q&A: Online Rabbi
Online Rabbi
Question
A. I’ll start with the usual procedure here.
Do you know that moment when you clean your glasses and immediately feel the relief of seeing better, and wonder why you didn’t do it earlier?
That moment is you.
Many thanks to the Rabbi for the clarity, the precision, the sharpness, the terribly and unbearably blunt directness,
for the emotional diet and the widening of my intellectual horizons.
It’s impossible to describe how much suffering I’ve shed since I started reading here, and in the books.
(For that I expect to receive a “much appreciated.”)
B. Is it permissible to ask a rabbi questions on the internet? (This is not trolling; I mean because it’s fast and anonymous.)
C. What does “make for yourself a rabbi” mean?
Thank you very much
Answer
A. You got it (“much appreciated”). Responses like these are my consolation in my poverty. 🙂
B. The responsa section here on the site is meant for questions, and the anonymity is up to you. That’s what we do here.
C. “Make for yourself a rabbi” is not a halakhic instruction, and therefore it is not a halakhic obligation either. It is a recommendation, and it is aimed mainly at someone who has not yet reached sufficient halakhic knowledge and skill. It is proper for such a person to make for himself or herself a rabbi who will advance and guide them until they can stand on their own judgment. The relationship between the rabbi and the student is subject to the decision and policy they formulate together. This does not necessarily mean giving instructions and carrying them out (obedience), but more guidance in how to make decisions and acquire knowledge and skill. That is at least if the student’s goal is to progress and arrive at independent judgment. There are people who look for a rabbi as a substitute for learning, meaning someone who will issue rulings for them and decide in their place. That is a different function (though it can also be included under that instruction, which continues: “and remove yourself from doubt”).
Discussion on Answer
A. In principle, Rabbi Google is as much a rabbi as any other rabbi. The problem is that there are always several answers there, and the question is how you choose between them. If you always choose the convenient / lenient one, there may be a problem of “the leniencies of this one and the leniencies of that one” (although according to the Talmud’s conclusion this is problematic only with two leniencies that contradict one another). But in my opinion, if you choose according to the laws of doubt—being lenient in rabbinic matters and stringent in Torah-level matters—there should not be a problem. If you randomize and always go with the first answer, that also seems fine to me. If you choose the one that seems most logical to you, that also seems fine to me.
B. Definitely. There is no such thing, because the rabbi does not permit anything. The Torah permits or does not permit, not the rabbi. The rabbi only tells you what, in his opinion, the Torah says. This is not just semantics. I discussed this in detail in the third book of my trilogy. There is a very nice article by my friend Nadav Shnerb on this: “The Jewish Ark of Lies.” Highly recommended. I also have an article on the site about family planning where I deal with this too; search for it on the site.
Thanks again,
the moment the Rabbi switches to Aramaic, I don’t understand…
I saw in some question that the Rabbi wondered why there isn’t a significant female presence here, so here’s one answer for you…
I and others like me aren’t in the jargon. In the ulpana we never opened a page of Talmud (I didn’t know that was possible), and since then I’ve been in the race of motherhood… so if you could explain the problem with “the leniencies of this one,” I’d appreciate it.
The Talmud says that someone who chooses a halakhic decisor based on whose answer is lenient (= “the leniencies of this one and the leniencies of that one”) is wicked. But according to the Talmud’s conclusion, this was said only about a situation where the two leniencies chosen contradict each other. And even so, it is accepted that even without a contradiction, it is not proper to act that way.
I think the overwhelming majority of the material here does not require Aramaic or scholarly-Talmudic jargon.
Thank you very much!
A. What is the significance of issuing a halakhic ruling by Google, without an ongoing relationship with a rabbi, when you can find all kinds of answers online, sometimes contradictory…
B. Is there something wrong with an expression like “to find a rabbi who will permit”?