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http://torahweb.org/torah/special/2003/rsch_masorah.html On the Matter ofMasorah

In general, masorah plays a most important role in establishing the halacha. Rambam writes

that in his opinion, we ought to not simply establish every seventh year as a shemittah year,but rather must have fifty-year cycles, with the 7

th, 14

th, 21

st, etc. years observed asshemittah,

and the fiftieth year being blank. (The special mitzvos ofyoveil, the fiftieth year, only applywhen the majority of the world Jewish population is located in Eretz Yisrael). However, theRambam (Hilchos Shemittah V'Yovel, 10:5) continues to say, that the Geonim who lived in

Eretz Yisrael and observed the laws ofshemittah, clearly followed the practice of simplyobserving every seventh year asshemittah, and did not leave the fiftieth year blank. AlthoughRambam thought that this does not make any sense, he said that this practice shouldnonetheless be followed because masorah is most crucial in determining what the halachashould be. We ought to assume that there certainly must be some good explanation for this

practice, even though Rambam thought it did not make any sense at all.[We] assume that a centuries-old halachic position, accepted and observed universally by all

ofKlal Yisroel, does not lend itself to reversal. The tradition makes room for, and evenencourages, chiddush, but not forshinui (see Nefesh Harav pg. 64). According to Rambam,

the binding force of the Talmud is precisely due to the fact that it was universally accepted byall ofKlal YisroelA matter of halacha which has been accepted for centuries can not beoverturned, unless one can demonstrate that there simply was an error involved from the very

outset.

http://torahweb.org/torah/2007/parsha/rsch_korach.html Its Just Plain Common Sense

A layman who is not familiar with the intricacies of physics or biology will often be mistakenif he will apply common sense to those disciplines; and the same is true of the self-containeddiscipline of Torah. But very often we will use common sense in establishing halacha! The

Talmud tells us that by way ofsevorah we can establish a din deoaraisa! I recently met ayoung talmid chochom who insisted that a certain halacha in Shulchan Aruch must beunderstood literally, as applying in all cases, even when it made no sense. I argued that it wasself understood that one use his common sense, and only apply the halacha when it indeed did

make sense. This young talmid chochom told me, no, we may not use common sense at all,and even though the halacha as he misunderstood it made no sense, he has emunaschachomim. I told him that this was a Christian concept (the principle of the infallibility of the

osek). ..In our religion, are we not permitted, or better yetobligated, to ask questions whenwe come across a halacha that makes no sense? Our Torah is a Toras emes: it corresponds to

reality, and does not contradict it! If there are two ways to understand a halacha, one whichmakes sense and the other does not, of course we should choose the interpretation that makessense!...Yes, indeed, emunas chachomim is a very fundamental principle in our faith: we

believe Hakadosh Baruch Hu will give divine assistance to an honest and deserving talmidchochom that he should be above his personal negios in issuing a psak; he will not have an

agenda. But it doesnt mean that we should believe in nonsense. Every exaggeration is bydefinition not true. It does not correspond to reality.

Rav Schachter, 1/30/09, explaining why his two articles (excerpted above) are not contradictory:

When were dealing with a fact as it impacts on the halacha, we use our common sense and donot apply the halacha in case A if it makes no sense to apply it in case A.

When were dealing with the internal dynamics of the halachic system itself, ones ownconclusion will yield to the minhagim and kaballos. Even here, its not surrender to that which weknow is incorrect; its surrender to that which is correct for an as-yet-unknown reason.

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