Thought for the Day: ספק דרבנן לקולא -- What Kind of Doubt/Uncertainty/Inconclusiveness Leads to a Leniency?
Everyone loves a good leniency. There is a famous dictum that applies to all areas of halacha:
ספק דרבנן לקולא, ספק דאורייתא לחומרא/Where an irresolvable doubt is present: with regard to Rabbinic decrees, we rule leniently; with regard to Torah prohibition, we rule stringently.
A famous example that comes up annually is respect to counting the Omer when one has definitely missed a day. On the one hand, it might be that the counting of each and every day is the fulfillment of a Torah requirement; therefore, we continue to count the rest of the days. On the other hand, it might not be a mitzvah at all once a day has been missed, in which case it would be innappropriate to make a bracha. Since (nearly) all brachos are mandated by Rabbinic decree, one does not make the bracha before counting the days of the Omer after the missed day.
So far, so good. Boringly straightforward at this point in my learning. Imagine my surprise, then, when I learned (Yoreh Dea 92:7) that one can be lenient in stressful situations, such as significant monetary loss, erev Shabbos, or guests. However, when it comes to milk with chicken, one absolutely may not be lenient. But, but... milk/fowl mixtures are forbidden by rabbinic decree, not Torah law! What happened to ספק דרבנן לקולא/when one is faced with an irresolvable doubt regarding a rabbinic decree, one has the right to be lenient? Especially surprising here, because that self-same doubt—even in the case of the Torah prohibition of milk/meat mixtures—allows us to be lenient just because we are stressed out!
I'm sorry.... what? Ohhh! You want some context! Sure; no problem.
That siman is discussing the very practical kitchen question of what to do when a drop of milk falls on the outside of a pot in which one is cooking a nice fleishig concoction. (I note in passing, that none of this would happen if you just all learned to enjoy your coffee black, as I do; just saying.) As previously discussed (TftD: Taste and Smell Molecules are Really Tiny), the taste of that little drop of milk readily passes through the pot, and so we have a potential meat/milk being cooked together situation. If the drop of milk hits the pot below the level of the fleishig gruel, then there is no problem whatsoever. Why? Unless you are using a really teeny, weeny, eensy, beensy pot, the volume of gruel is clearly more than sixty times the volume of that little drop.
What happens, though, in the case where that one little drop of milk hits the side of the pot above the level of the gruel? This was actually discussed some time ago in TftD: A Drop of Milk Spatters on a Roasting Pan. You can either go there (in case you don't remember every TftD that I have ever written) or just take my word for it: When the milk drop hits that pot above the level of the fleishig gruel, its effective volume gets amplified by 60. While there is enough volume of fleishig gruel to nullify that drop, there is not enough volume of fleishig gruel to nullify 60 times the drop.
Problem. End of context backstory. So, to reiterate: one can be lenient in stressful situations, such as significant monetary loss, erev Shabbos, or guests. However, when it comes to milk with chicken, one certainly, absolutely may not be lenient.
So here's the deal... and it's pretty cool, I think. What is the source of our doubt? We don't know how much the taste of that drop of milk actually spreads through the pot. To be safe, we need to be stringent. The source of our doubt has nothing whatsoever to do with the prohibition at all; it has to do with the physical movement of taste through metal. If we could resolve that mechanism and its parameters, we would have it resolved for both meat and fowl. Therefore ספק דרבנן לקולא never got a chance to kick in.
The rules for when a stressful situation permits a leniency also have nothing to do with the prohibition. It has to do with how we handle multiple שִׁיטָות/approaches; some of which are lenient. (As detailed in TftD: How/Why "Great Monetary Loss" and "Pressing Circumstances" Is a Thing in Halacha.)
Today's TftD is basically a confluence of thoughts already expressed in other TftDs. (It was also an excellent review for me. 
) I would like to add one new observation to feel I have done some real work today. These ideas all came together for me as I was reviewing what I have learned about the halachos of mixtures of milk and meat over the last couple of years since I retired. Review is always good. This time, though, I noticed an interesting thing about the examples given for stressful situations:
- erev Shabbos is associated with בין אדם למקום/how we relate to HaShem
- guests coming is associated with בין אדם לחבירו/how we relate to other Jews
- great monetary loss is associated with בין אדם לעצמו/how we relate to ourselves
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