Sunday, June 25, 2017

How Rav Moshe Wrote His Tshuvos

One contemporary Rav [ztz"l] who is famous for his "tape recorder" approach to psak [that is negated by Rav Shulzinger in the above passage] argued that one cannot decide a halacha unless one sees what everybody else said about it. Maybe they have a svara to permit or forbid that the posek didn't think of! You can't think of EVERYTHING yourself and therefore it is necessary to SEE everyone else INSIDE [and not rely on hearsay or quotations from other sefarim] and then DECIDE based on various factors what the halacha should be. 

That would be his answer to Rav Abramsky's critique ודו"ק. Rav Moshe, famously, did not abide by that approach. He bases his psak on the rishonim and a few major acharonim and that's it.