Q&A: Stringent Rulings and Formal Authority
Stringent Rulings and Formal Authority
Question
In the lecture series Learning and Ruling (and also elsewhere), the Rabbi said that when a halakhic decisor is asked a question of Jewish law, he should present the halakhic data, and the respondent has to decide.
One implication is that there is no such thing as ruling in general, and especially not stringently or leniently, if that is not what the law actually is.
I saw in Bava Metzia 91a:
Rav Pappa said: The household of Rav Pappa bar Abba asked me these matters, and I resolved them for them toward prohibition—one in accordance with the law and one not in accordance with the law.
Is this formal authority?
Answer
It happens every day that halakhic decisors give their questioners a bottom-line answer. This is especially common among respondents who are approached by many people and do not have the ability to lay out the full picture for each and every one. It seems that there Rav Pappa gave them a bottom-line instruction. In his ordinary ruling there is no problem, because when it is a clear-cut case there is no reason to spell everything out. You give the answer, and that's that. But in his second answer he even allowed himself to lie—a “holy lie.” In my opinion this is forbidden (both because of falsehood and because of adding to the Torah), and nowadays it is also unwise (because the sources of information are open to everyone, and it is easy to get in touch with various rabbis and discover all the opinions and the actual halakhic truth).