Thursday 18 February 2010

Seeing Policies Everywhere 16

I recently post this on the Avodah List


Here are some related concepts

A Halachah v'ein morin kein
B Shimush vs. Text
C The language of Halacha
D Da'as teireh
E Meta-Halachah

It just seems obvious to me that rabbinic Judaism does not always strictly conform to textual standards and that meta considerations take over at times

A Not intermarrying
B Not running coffeemaker on timer on Shabbos
C Kashrus agencies certifying defensively to avoid certain gray areas
D Not using dishwashers for both dairy and meat simultaneously

To someone in the field and seeing both texts and real-life mimetics all are hashkafically obvious EVEN when the letter of the law might be different.

Relying on the letter of the law is helpful at times and often necessary "bishat had'chaq" or "b'diavad". We need to allow for accidents, extreme urgencies, we need flexibility

As policies, such minimalism will IMHO undermine simple piety and z'hirut. It's a bad plan at the outset to look for loopholes

Loopholes are OK AFTER the fact [post facto]

Q'doshim Tihyu

KT
RRW

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