Torah and Jewish Idea > Torah and Jewish Idea
Great new shiur from Rav Bar Hayim
Kahane-Was-Right BT:
Questioner: Do you believe we should look at all the rishonim, etc etc has to repeat his question more clearly, then says, “Would you still reject the Rambam if there were no other rishonim against him (unlike in this case).”
Rav Bar Hayim: That’s like asking, what would I do if the sun didn’t rise tomorrow. When was there ever an issue where there is only one opinion and it’s by Rambam and no one else?
Questioner: Well how far will you take this?
Rav Bar Hayim: I can see from the responses that my approach here is very wonderful and new and strange. ….. back and forth with crowd, someone mentions something from Maharal about when a person shouldn’t give his opinion…..
Rav Bar Hayim: Maharal says it is better for someone not qualified to learn the sugiya and the rulings, etc he’s not qualified to give his opinion. Like going to a plumber for a medical condition. But a Talmud chacham, one is an expert in Torah. And only those with a background and expertise in this area, they can do it, and they are required to decipher what is the best approach and give their opinion.
Quote from Mishneh Torah in Rambam’s hakdama: When faced with machloketh between posekim, follow the opinion that reason and proofs show to be the best one.
End of part 1.
I have tried to paraphrase/quote Rav Bar Hayim's responses the best way possible.
q_q_:
wow.. I know a word for word rendition is alot of work.
It is an ideal, which you have managed there.
If it is too much work to produce that, you may want to consider as an alternative, a summary (a summary isn't as ideal as what you produced there, but it is still good), it would reduce your burden.
Kahane-Was-Right BT:
Yeah it's just that the back and forth with the crowd would be impossible to capture well except to repeat it in depth.
q_q_:
--- Quote from: Kahane-Was-Right BT on December 01, 2008, 03:57:42 PM ---Yeah it's just that the back and forth with the crowd would be impossible to capture well except to repeat it in depth.
--- End quote ---
i'm having some network connection problems.. (ISP)
I must say.. looking at judea's links, I couldn't even see where it was on the site.
Having seen your summary.. I now know the contents.. But also, I see where it is on his site, and I see there is a brief description there..
These descriptions look quite accurate, given that I have now seen the contents.
It just looks like classic rabbi bar hayyim.. I, and you no doubt, are already familiar with these positions that he has.
Here is a description from the site.. more like an advert.. But it has its merits. Nowhere near as good as your transcription.. And a summary of your transcription would easily be superior to the description.advert on his site.
Halackic Reality Part 1
Written by Rav Bar-Hayim
If you believe that a posek is wrong on a particular issue, should you abide by his ruling anyway or hew to the truth? The Rambam's answer. Discover why you should not always accept the Mishnah Brurah - and the true size of a k'zayit (olive).
Halackic Reality Part 2
Written by Rav Bar-Hayim
When there is a disagreement about Jewish law, you follow the most logical approach. So says the Rambam. But are people today qualified to make such judgments? Of course they are.
Now..
Your transcription is much better than that.. And the descriptions on the site are lacking..
I think some of the things you quoted Rabbi Bar Hayyim as saying, really summarised his whole thing..
square brackets added by me.
"Aren’t these [mishneh brurah, and shulchan aruch] universally binding in the halacha? Rav Bar Hayim answers “No” there too. A Jew who is trying to live a life according to Torah, his allegiance is not to any specific person or any specific work, or any specific posek.
"
His general position of one being able to question poskim and make one's own decision , that is well known to us already..
the new thing here is that he has elaborated and said that living by the torah is not about having a complete allegiance to particular work e.g. shulchan aruch or mishneh brurah.
I guess he extends that to the Bavli too. Since he err follows the Yerushalmi?! ;-)
Kahane-Was-Right BT:
--- Quote from: q_q_ on December 01, 2008, 05:45:53 PM ---
"Aren’t these [mishneh brurah, and shulchan aruch] universally binding in the halacha? Rav Bar Hayim answers “No” there too. A Jew who is trying to live a life according to Torah, his allegiance is not to any specific person or any specific work, or any specific posek.
"
His general position of one being able to question poskim and make one's own decision , that is well known to us already..
--- End quote ---
We have to be careful to understand Rav Bar Hayim correctly. He is not simply rejecting all rishonim on a halachic issue to prefer an opinion that fits with his own reasoning (ie, his "own" decision). Rather he is surveying the body of work regarding this subject and ferreting out what makes sense vs. what doesn't, or what makes more sense, vs. what makes less sense using his own mind and sechel to fit into an overall picture. Ie, for instance, on this issue, he chose to hold like the Riaz, Ritva, etc despite the fact that "the halacha" (and he would likely object to a categorization like that, but this term meaning what people consider codified, set in stone, and what people do today - binding) holds by a contrary opinion by different rishonim. If their opinion is less convincing than that of Ritva, etc, then no one is bound to accept what they find less consistent.
He seems to suggest that "the halacha" was never set in stone, and it is each generation's job to survey the whole of the evidence and the whole body of work available to them (ie, chumash, mishna, both talmudim, gaonim, rishonim, perhaps acharonim, and then use one's own logic to fit together the puzzle according to his own logical rationality) - This is the job of a posek or a Torah authority. He elaborates more on this in the "Lomdus, Beth Yosef, Postmodernism" shiur. He suggests that all the great Chachamim, including Rashi, Rambam, Tosfoth, etc etc all went through this process (and that's obviously how they disagreed with one another and often gave very different views - a very different pshat!). But a radical change of the halachic system occurred a few hundred years ago with the Shulchan Aruch, in which we are basically told we (our generation of Torah leaders - from now to eternity ?) are no longer able to make their own decisions, do not have a duty to survey all of the sources or use their own intellect, and instead will use "codified" texts of halacha that completely separate the learning of gemara from making of halachic decisions. They've already been made for the talmid chacham, and he must go by these certain landmark texts and not disagree.
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