Explaining Sevarot

Question

I have been reading this board for a while, and I have learned a lot of interesting things, particularly about the production of food in this country. Thank you for all of the time and effort that you devote to educating the public about kashrut and about halakha in general. The one thing, however, that has bothered me about this board is the harshness of the reply to any post that brings a sevara to challenge your father's pesak. I have seen well-meaning, sincere inquiries responded to with a cry of "no chaburas," a tirade against people who "learn Yevamos be'iyun and think that they know how to pasken," or even an accusation of collusion with the evil "kashrut mafia." I understand that you have other jobs, and that you receive many questions each day. I recognize that this site is primarily for people who simply want to know how to act in a given situation, and I do not expect a full-length teshuva in response to each question. Consider, though, for example, the post by Marc Shapiro (11/11/2003) explaining the basic difference between your father's shita and that of the kashrut supervision agencies. I found that post to be extraordinarily useful in understanding why this website differs from what most of our rabbis would tell us in matters of kashrut. Yet when Yair Hoffman posted (12/4/2003), pointing out that there were a number of acharonim who ruled that we should be concerned for the position of the Rashba, the response was quite harsh. As this is an issue that is very central to this forum, I would have very much appreciated a real discussion of the arguments raised by these acharonim and why your father holds differently. At the heart of the matter is the question of why one should pick your father as his poseik. You have stressed many times that one should simply pick one rav and follow him in everything. Presumably, one should pick a rav based one's belief that the method he uses in pesak is most correct, not because one "likes" the outcome. Thus, I may think that it would be quite convenient to be able to eat a tuna sandwich at Subway, but I wouldn't think that this is a legitimate reason for me to pick R' Abadi, who is not from my community and whom I do not know personally, as my poseik. If, on the other hand, this website would have a serious discussion of the issue -- not just saying that "of course it's allowed, because Shulchan Arukh allows it." but explaining why other poskim do not allow it and why R' Abadi differs -- then I would really have a chance to see why R' Abadi's logic is superior, and I should choose him as my poseik. I think that those who bring sevarot to challenge piskei halakha that are posted on this board are not doing so out of any disrespect for your father, but rather are engaging in "machaloket leshem shamayim," which is the way that Torah has always been learned. The Ramban wanted to defend the positions of the Rif against the attacks of the Ba'al haMaor, but he didn't just say "the Rif paskened the way he did, so don't give me lomdus." He wrote the whole "Milchamot Hashem" to explain the Rif's sevarot in light of the Ba'al haMaor's attacks. On a related note, when somebody has asked why, you have answered a few times, "Just do it. If you just follow your rav, that's all Hashem wants from you." I thought that Hashem also wants each of us to plumb the depths of His Torah! Of course, once you get a particular pesak, you have to follow it. That's a clear halakha. But how can it be that there's no value in knowing the Torah that led to the pesak halakha?! Perhaps it's not the purpose of this website, which is fine, but I wouldn't think that it's not important and not part of what Hashem wants us to do. In this way, you would seem to divide the world into two camps: world-class poskim and all of the rest of us. For those of us in the second camp, some of your comments would seem to suggest that there is no value in learning halakha, since we need only ask our rabbis what to do in every case. However, you have also lamented the fact that people spend too much time learning "talmudic logic" and "irrelevant" masekhtot, and not enough time learning halakha. If I am always supposed to go to my rabbi and get a simple "yes" or "no" answer for everything, then why is it a problem if I want to spend my learning time each day learning Yevamos (for example) be'iyun? I apologize if I have sounded overly harsh, but this has been bothering me for a while. I am writing not to pick a fight, but because I would like to see this great website maximize its potential. Respectfully, David Cohen