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Should we really listen to Chazal if they tell us that our left arm is our right one?

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The possuk says you shall not sway from their ways Right or Left. Rashi says that this means even if they tell you that right is left or vice versa you must believe them.

Does this mean if a Gadol tells you to put tefillin on your other arm you should listen to him? How literal is this?


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    Why not do both - deepThinkerJul 13  '12 at 00:49
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2 answers!

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This pasuk is not talking about me or you thinking/believing one way or the other. It is about how Halacha gets established. The saying 'Torah is not in heaven' means that regardless of what the 'truth' is, Halacha is established by the majority of the main court in any given generation. It could be the minority got it the way Hashem originally intended, but since the Torah itself says to follow the majority and not to veer left or right, it turns out that the Torah wants you to do the 'wrong' thing. Therefore, if the Beis Din HaGadol will rule one way and you are certain they made a mistake and you do the opposite - you're a big genius, but you didn't follow the Halacha, because they establish Halacha and not 'truth.'* This is what Rashi means.

In a strictly Halachic sense this is not relevant to rabbis nowadays, because they do not claim to be establishers of Halacha as much as experts in figuring it out. This is because we assume that we do not have the requisite semicha to establish Halacha. So nowadays if a hundred rabbis say one thing and one of equal standing says something else, and you follow that one, you haven't broken לא תסור. You would be a fool and a hypocrite (unless he is your rabbi you always follow), but you wouldn't technically be breaking לא תסור.

Of course, there is a very important concept that one should have someone as a mentor; someone that one acknowledges is wiser than oneself. One could certainly put a spin on the pasuk and use it as support for this concept which we find all over Chazal. But that is not technically what the pasuk or Rashi is referring to.

For a related discussion see this blog post.

*At the same time, it is their obligation to establish Halacha based on 'truth' and they are held responsible for mistakes they make, and future courts have the power to hold different interpretations of the Torah are correct.


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    But doesnt this only apply to when the subject they are talking about is up for debate, not on a fact like whethere right is left. What would be if Sanhedrin would tell a person to put Tefillin on the other arm? - Yehuda HaMaccabiJul 13  '12 at 15:12
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    Halacha is the Truth. The truth is whatever the chachamim decide! Besides that decent answer! +1 - disgruntledGoatJul 13  '12 at 15:30
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    see my comment on your blog! Rishonim Kamalchim - Old WineJul 13  '12 at 17:02
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    @OldWine I saw it, thanks. I always appreciate comments. I disagree with you though. - Dov FJul 13  '12 at 17:12
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The Gemara in Horiyos (2b) says that if a student fit to make a psak (like Shimon ben Azai or ben Zoma) follows a permissive ruling of Beis Din on which he argues and which was later found to be incorrect (and the sin is chayev a chatas), he is a shogeg and must bring a Chatas.

The Gemara asks how could he be a Shogeg, he was fit to rule and did actually argue on the court. This is a Meizid. The Gemara says that he made a mistake in the rule of "Lo Sasur" (and thinks that one must obey the court if they disagree with him). This Gemara implies that one is forbidden to listen to a Beis Din (of 71, btw) if he disagrees with this.

The Ramban asks how could this fit with the Yerushalmi (which is the Rashi that you mentioned)?

He answered that one must unconditionally obey a Beis Din only if one told his Sevara and they overruled it (so Yachid vs. Rabim halacha kerabim). If not, one must be choshesh that if they would have heard your sevara, they would have changed their Psak.

Therefore, if

  1. one isn't fit to paskin, always listen to the Rabbi.
  2. one is fit to paskin, one must work it out with the Rov. If he doesn't have a chance, he must follow his opinion.
  3. if one works it out in a Sanhedrin and it goes for a vote and he looses, he cannot follow his opinion.

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2   After a certain Tanna read by a candle on Shabbos and titled the light, he said 'How great the Chachamim were when they said not to read by a candle on Shabbos'. The Gaon says that what he meant was how great of them not to say the reason because if people would know the reason they would argue! This would seem that when not knowing the reason we cannot argue. But perhaps this is going on later generations who cannot argue as much! - deepThinkerJul 13  '12 at 15:17
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    I am sure you have to be as great as the person who said it to argue! - disgruntledGoatJul 13  '12 at 15:29
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    for similar topic see http://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/12874/1145. Looks like the questions are from the same author! - Old WineJul 13  '12 at 17:04
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