Friday, March 4, 2022

Is halachic status independent of reality?

Sanhedrin (33b)  To explain the terms “innocent” and “righteous” in the verse: “And the innocent and the righteous you shall not slay” (Exodus 23:7), the Sages taught: From where is it derived that with regard to one who is leaving the court having been found liable, and someone said: I have the ability to teach a reason to acquit him, from where is it derived that the court brings the accused back to be judged again? The verse states: The innocent you shall not slay, and the accused may in fact be innocent.

3 comments:

  1. Torah is saying that Status should be reality.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rav Slifkin deals with this a lot in his ongoing arguments with Rav Meiselman.
    It seems to me that on one hand, as the introduction to Igros Moshe says, the halakhic p'sak does determine reality. If the Rav says a chicken is kosher, then it's kosher. It could be that up in Heaven they're saying "Hey buddy, you missed something when you checked it" but it doesn't matter. Lo b'shamayim hi. The reality is that the chicken is kosher. So ultimately we have a conflict between truth (the chicken isn't kosher) and reality (the Rav pronounced it kosher so it is).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Where does Rav Moshe claim this?

    ReplyDelete

ANONYMOUS COMMENTS WILL NOT BE POSTED!
please use either your real name or a pseudonym.