I remember in the naivete of my youth thinking how strange it is was that people were always complaining about how annoying people who claim to always be right are. After all, no one can be right all the time. I thought, "But it's easy to always be right. Just don't say anything unless you have all the facts." Of course, that is naive, but it turns out there are two reasons that plan can go sour. For one thing, because many find it hard to stick to that rule and it is precisely those people who are so annoying. The remediation for that is two fold: (1) train yourself to ignore those people, and (2) don't become one of those people. Both can be solved with serious study of M'silas Yesharim.
The second fault with the naive view is, as one learns with experience, many of life's issues and challenges come with ineludible (great word, no?) uncertainties and nonetheless, an actionable decision is required. Halacha gives us two great tools for coping with this situation. One is רוב/majority, the other is חזקה/presumption based on status quo.
From where do we learn that רוב works? Chazal learn it from the fact that the Torah forbids striking a parent; striking a parent with enough force to leave a bruise is a capital crime. There is no question who the mother is; she done birthed that boy. What about the father? Most (Torah observant, anyway) women do not have affairs. That רוב tells us that husband is halachically the father.
What about חזקה? When a house develops certain stains/blotches, a kohein is called to inspect the house to see if these stains/blotches are the sort that would render the house טמא. Note well that it is not the existence of those stains/blotches that render the house טמא, but the pronouncement of the kohein that makes the house טמא. Those stains/blotches can (and often do) wax and wane with time. How do we know that from the time that kohein has finished examining the upstairs till the time he gets outside that nothing happened to would have changed the status? That is, how can the kohein ever declare a house as טמא -- which the Torah requires him to do? That is the rule of חזקה. The kohein determined that the house was טמא when he finished his inspection, therefore the house remains טמא until some significant event occurs to break the חזקה.
Note well that רוב gives us a definite status. In the case above, the man is not probably the father -- we don't kill someone on a probably, but form a halachic vantage point, he is definitely the father. חזקה, on the other hand, gives us the ability to carry on, but makes no assertion about the reality of the situation. There are many ways that a חזקה can be broken/changed. A decision based on רוב, on the other hand, can only be changed by uprooting/disproving the membership in the original רוב. There other -- quite practically important -- differences, which I hope to discuss in upcoming TftDs.
The second fault with the naive view is, as one learns with experience, many of life's issues and challenges come with ineludible (great word, no?) uncertainties and nonetheless, an actionable decision is required. Halacha gives us two great tools for coping with this situation. One is רוב/majority, the other is חזקה/presumption based on status quo.
From where do we learn that רוב works? Chazal learn it from the fact that the Torah forbids striking a parent; striking a parent with enough force to leave a bruise is a capital crime. There is no question who the mother is; she done birthed that boy. What about the father? Most (Torah observant, anyway) women do not have affairs. That רוב tells us that husband is halachically the father.
What about חזקה? When a house develops certain stains/blotches, a kohein is called to inspect the house to see if these stains/blotches are the sort that would render the house טמא. Note well that it is not the existence of those stains/blotches that render the house טמא, but the pronouncement of the kohein that makes the house טמא. Those stains/blotches can (and often do) wax and wane with time. How do we know that from the time that kohein has finished examining the upstairs till the time he gets outside that nothing happened to would have changed the status? That is, how can the kohein ever declare a house as טמא -- which the Torah requires him to do? That is the rule of חזקה. The kohein determined that the house was טמא when he finished his inspection, therefore the house remains טמא until some significant event occurs to break the חזקה.
Note well that רוב gives us a definite status. In the case above, the man is not probably the father -- we don't kill someone on a probably, but form a halachic vantage point, he is definitely the father. חזקה, on the other hand, gives us the ability to carry on, but makes no assertion about the reality of the situation. There are many ways that a חזקה can be broken/changed. A decision based on רוב, on the other hand, can only be changed by uprooting/disproving the membership in the original רוב. There other -- quite practically important -- differences, which I hope to discuss in upcoming TftDs.
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