Thread by @JYuter

1. THREAD: In light of the below discussion on Jewish labor laws, I wanted to share a few general thoughts about the halakhic process.

I know Twitter is not the best forum and I don't have access to all citations, but please bear with me.

https://twitter.com/JYuter/status/1117836987090788352

2. In my opinion, the single biggest question surrounding Jewish law is the matter of authority. There are countless opinions, but how does one know when to follow which or when which opinion *must* be followed?

3. To some extent, this depends on communities. Local rabbis decide for their congregations. Hassidim have designated "Rebbes" and other schools or broader communities have their own leaders.

4. For one example to which I'll return shortly, R. Moshe Feinstein is quoted as an authority much more often in the US than in Israel, and in his former neighborhood in NY's Lower East Side, his opinion ends conversations among many as the final word.

5. But when individuals tell *other* people what to do, they presume that certain opinions are not just normative, but *universal,* that is that all Jews (or at least those they're trying to influence) are bound by this decision.

6. More often than not this is done by an "appeal to authority." In Jewish law, this is not an inherent *logical* fallacy since everything depends on an authority, but the nature and normativity of someone's authority can be disputed.

7. According to the appeal to authority, "X is Jewish law because Y said so." The problem with this argument is that rarely do people follow anyone with absolute consistency.

8. I would tell people when they pick up a popular book on Jewish law to take a look at the footnotes and be mindful of who gets quoted when, how many diff sources are quoted, and what would happen if one would cite diff passages from the same authorities on diff issues

9. Let's go back to the question of Jewish labor laws. The selective appeals to authority are prevalent here because many of the strongest liberal voices in favor of Labor also held very anti-liberal positions.

10. R. Moshe Feinstein also favored labor, but had relatively strict opinions regarding relying on eiruvin for carrying on Shabbat

11. R. Kook supported workers but he also held what many liberals would consider "problematic" opinions on non-Jews.

He also said women shouldn't run for public office.

Or vote.
edah.org/backend/journa…

12. It's particularly jarring for me to hear Conservative and Reform rabbis appeal to the authority of people like R. Ovadia Yosef and R. Moshe Feinstein on labor considering their utter contempt for Conservative and Reform Judaism.

13. When R. Moshe Feinstein wrote in Hebrew, he frequently avoided calling Conservative and Reform rabbis "Rabbanim" the Hebrew equivalent but would transliterate into Hebrew the English word "Rabbi" to differentiate

14. The problem with the "appeal to authority" in Judaism is that one must justify why this person must be followed here as an authority but can (or should) be ignored elsewhere.

15. In contrast, someone who has a system/template through which to process the countless opinions, then one can easily explain why certain opinions are "better" than others. Of course, if someone *does* have a system then it must be defined and defended.

16. Sometimes the appeal to authority is out of pedagogic necessity to answer a question quickly. Other times it's out of ignorance, hubris, or plain dishonesty as a quick way to make a point.

17. I discuss the requirement for intellectual honesty in my Sacred Slogans post on 70 Face / Eilu Va'Eilu here:
joshyuter.com/2018/09/14/spe…

18. And for more on the Halakhic Process with a focus on authority, please see my extensive podcast series here:
joshyuter.com/2013/11/11/pod…

19. Addendum: For those who might argue that certain statements were situational or need to be taken in historical context, this too would have to be applied systematically.