Q&A: How can the answer “because this is tradition” be a legitimate halakhic answer?
How can the answer “because this is tradition” be a legitimate halakhic answer?
Question
Let me explain: I’m currently studying the laws of kashrut and I got to the section on kashering utensils. The rabbi-author says that even though nowadays utensils do not absorb taste the way they once did, and soap cleans much better than it used to, so that it is impossible to detect the taste of non-kosher food, still many rabbis will not permit treating metal utensils like glass utensils “because this is a Jewish tradition and it is important to preserve it.” What value does that have if, in the end, from a cold halakhic perspective there is no reason to preserve this fence?
In addition, this is also an argument that can be used to justify any unwillingness to advance halakhically, and there is no way to argue against it.
Answer
It isn’t. A tradition that has become obsolete carries no weight whatsoever.
Of course one cannot say that this is a prohibition of meat and milk, because if it does not absorb then there is no issue of meat and milk here. But preserving the tradition in and of itself also has no value when the content is mistaken. In rabbinic Jewish law they say that even if the reason no longer applies, the decree or enactment does not thereby lapse, but even that is a rule with many exceptions (see my article on the nullification of enactments nowadays), and certainly if we are dealing with a Torah-level law.
They say the same thing about tekhelet too—that we have no tradition, and therefore one should not wear it. This is of course utter nonsense.
Discussion on Answer
If you are convinced that there is no absorption, then there is no reason to keep rules that were derived from the mistaken assumption that there is absorption.
But in order to act on this in practice, it is appropriate to study the passages and the research findings on absorption. Not all materials are alike, and one needs to know what the implications of the absorption assumption are and what is unrelated to it.
Thank you for the answer!
And following from that, if these really are the facts, it makes it hard for me to keep separate utensils and all that. I myself am not going to stop keeping it, because that is the Jewish law right now and I am obligated by it, but it is frustrating that I have to pretend and play make-believe. Do you also have an answer to that frustration?