Rabbis

Answer

Answered by Aaron Abadi

In the early generations, the regular people knew the Halachah pretty well, too, not just the Rabbis. They were capable of realizing that their Rabbi disagreed with a Halachah & thus they were required to not follow that particular ruling. Today, we are not of the same league. Neither are our Rabbis. We certainly are not capable nor qualified to second-guess each decision of our Rabbis and decide which ones are correct & which are not. That would require an equal amount of learning to a qualified Rabbi, thus we wouldn't need to come to them to begin with. When it suggests in the Gemara a scenario where a Rabbi says something different than the obvious Halachah, it is refering to a once-in-a-million situation, not the every-day thing that exists today. If we have Rabbis that have significant differences between their beliefs and those of the obvious Halachah, they should not be followed at all. You cannot compare someone who is about 75% in tune to the Halachah, with maybe Rav Moshe Feinstein who was the Talmid Chacham that he was, yet maybe said one Halachah that just doesn't fit. Of course if Rav Moshe was still around, it would be our duty to ask him how & why. There is a good chance that his reasoning would have opened our eyes, and we would then realize that it was not against anything, or that we completely misunderstood his Halachah. This issue has no connection to our society's Rabbis that sort of follow the Torah and the Shulchan Aruch.... Find a real Rabbi. Someone not afraid of the people. Raba died at 40 years old. One reason was because he was from the house of Eli Hacohen. The other reason was that they needed him in the Heavenly Yeshiva to settle a dispute between God vs: everyone else, because Torah is not in Shamayim and therefore they needed Raba from earth to make the Psak. He ultimately agreed with God. He was clearly one of our most prominent Rabbis, all accomplished in his 40 years. Yet, on earth in Pumpedisa, the city that he lived in, he was very unaccepted and not liked. He couldn't come up with names of who would eulogize him after his death other than two students. The reason was that he was not afraid of telling the people the truth, the Halachah, whether they liked it or not. He wasn't the first and he won't be the last. This is one of the signs of a real Rav. A Rav who in some things differs than what the people do, sometimes stricter and at other times more lenient. Our Rabbanim today are usually following the people's wishes. You need an Eiruv, we'll get you a Heter. You want to believe in the Hechsher concept because you got used to it, we'll justify that too. and on and on and on... Suddenly almost all the Halachot said are pretty much in line with how we were acting till now anyway. The people are happy, no-one wants change. This is referred to by our Rabbis as, "Pnei Hador Kipnei Hakelev." The face of the generation is like the face of a dog, referring to the time right before Moshiach. Because a dog walks ahead of it's master, seeming like it is leading, yet we all know that in reality the master is leading. The "face" of the generation refers to the Rabbis. The Rabbis will seem to be leading, but in reality it is the people that determine what they want said and the Rabbis will then justify it, seeming like they are the leaders. This is elaborated in the Sefer Kovetz MaAmarim by Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman. He goes on to quote the Zohar that says, "Beikvitah Demeshichah Chutzpah Yasgie." Which literally seems to mean at the time right before Moshiach there will be an abundance of Chutzpah. He explains that the Aramaic word "Yasgie" can also mean "Gadol." We see it in the Aramaic transalation of "Vatesaaini Ruach VaEshma Acharai Kol Raash Gadol." Gadol is transalated as "Sagie." Rav Elchonon says that in the past, the more pious the Rabbi, the bigger the Gadol he became. In the time before Moshiach, the more the Chutzpah, the bigger the Gadol. As painful as it is to say over, it is much more painful to actually see it and realize the truth in his words. The best part of it is that Moshiach is obviously real close! AA