https://traditiononline.org/towards-a-sociology-of-psak/
Despite the tendency, particularly within the right-wing Orthodox communities, for an almost reflex-action rejection of the role of social forces in psak, the more carefully one considers the issue the more it is apparent that poskim are not simply computers and that, indeed, there are many social forces which enter into psak, both in terms of specific rulings made for individual cases and in terms of who is recognized at any given time as a reputable pasek. Nor is this an issue over which there is anyimplicit dispute between learned "right-wingers" and "modernists." A few examples from history should suffice to indicate the role of social forces and conditions in psak.
Looks very interesting on my chol hamoed reading list.
ReplyDeleteOne halakhic factor , whcih is also socio-economic, was that Rabbonim were always considerate of the wealth of Jews. Well, Chazal were, and perhaps rishonim too. But what is nwo the strictly Chareidi version has totally discarded this concept, and taken the opposite view. Parnassah is no longer somethign they care about, - except when they make their collections - and then it is their own parnassah and not of the kahal. The advice is to do everything irrationally, and rely on siata d'shamaya. that is the opposite formula of the Torah, where we have to work rationally, according to reality, and then also rely on siata d'shamaya.
And yet the trend in the Litvish community seems to be in the other direction - Gedolim sealed off from the outside world, only given information by specific handlers, and expected to render a psak without any consideration other than pure halakhic considerations, no matter what the social consequences.
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