Q&A: Rulings
Rulings
Question
Why is it that if a certain public accepted something upon itself, that also obligates me, who was born into it, much later on (Mount Sinai)?
Regarding disputes, is there a situation in which I would have to follow a certain opinion even if I learned otherwise myself (and I am qualified to do so), or is such a situation impossible, and I can always conduct myself as seems right to me? (What is the meaning of what Maimonides wrote, that the sages of each and every generation are like the Sanhedrin?)
Answer
This has already been answered here many times. Briefly: just as the law obligates me even though I do not agree with it, because the public decided that this is the law. And that is true even two hundred years after the law was enacted, when the public and the legislators have all died. I am part of the public, and as part of it, its decisions obligate me just as my own decisions obligate me.
I did not understand the question regarding disputes. If there is a determination by a formal authority, that is binding. If not, then not.
Discussion on Answer
You noticed incorrectly. They were not asking about universal natural obligations by virtue of being human, such as the obligation to obey morality, but about particular natural obligations by virtue of being part of a group of people.
The distinction between the two groups of obligations you mentioned does not exist among the group of people I was referring to. You did not answer anything.
I noticed that questions of this kind are always asked only by someone who feels and senses that a person has natural rights he is born into, while being exempt from natural obligations, which he is also born into.