Daas Torah

Quite often, people go to Rabbonim for guidance and advice. The question then presents itself - Must a person follow the Rabbis advice?

The answer: ABSOLUTELY NOT! Why not? Because it says nowhere in the gemara or the shulchan aruch that a Rabbi's advice is binding and we live our lives based on the gemara and shulchan aruch.

What about "daas torah"? 2 answers: 1] The concept of "daas torah" as it is used today appears nowhere in the gemara or shulchan aruch. 2] Ask 5 Rabbis and you will get 9 opinions so which one is true "daas torah"? Rov Shach or the Lubavitcher Rebbe? Rov Eliashiv or Rov Shlomo Zalman Auerbach? Rov Moshe Feinstein or Rov Yaakov Kaminetsky or Rov Soloveitchik?

That being said I add that it is nevertheless STRONGLY RECOMMENDED to follow the advice of a Rov simply because a] his advice is based [we hope] on Torah principles which we might not have taken into account when deciding and EVERY decision we make has spiritual ramifications and b] he is [hopefully] objective.

It is also fine to ask more than one Rov for his opinion and decide which advice to follow. When we learn a piece of gemara and look up a Rashba to see how he understood the gemara we don't hesitate to look in the Ritva for fear of offending or disrespecting the Rashba becaus his opinion isn't good enough. Our knowledge is just enhanced and expanded.

I personally am a chossid of a Rebbe who is consulted by thousands of people on an endless array of questions and he has proven to me that he just has a clearer perspective on things than I do so when I ask his opinion I follow whatever he says. I would therefore suggest you find [if you haven't already] a Rov/Tzaddik with a proven track record and consult with him on those issues where you would benefit from guidance. Often people are just completely confused and it is comforting knowing that a tzaddik decided a certain way. We believe that he has Divine guidance - even in our generation. But not everybody called "Rabbi" is a conduit of the Divine will. Not everybody called Rabbi is necessarily a talmid chochom or even understands people or life very well. So one must pick a GOOD one!

I have learned from the Rebbe shlita NOT to impose my opinion on people so when someone asks me for advice I make it clear that my opinion is not binding. Ultimately it is the asker who must live with his decision - not me.

Everything I wrote is when the Rov offers his opinion about a non-halachic matter. Halacha is a different question which I did NOT address.