Reply To: infallibility and chachomim

Simchas613 and DaMoshe, thanks for your input. I think it is pretty clear from all rishonim (thanks DaMoshe) that this possuk only deals with actual mitzvos and not with “divrei reshus” or “milei d’alma”, as I call it.

Popa and DaasYochid: I said all along that , if you are close to a Godol or Rov, you are welcome to follow his advice. However, it does not obligate anyone else and, more importantly, it does not make someone a “kofer” if you don’t follow his way. But this is what has been the norm in recent years- anyone questioning any saying of a Godol is called a “kofer”. This is what “emunas chachomim” has become.

A Godol tells you to vote a certain way- if you don’t-you are a kofer!

A Godol says you should follow a certain way in life-if you question it, you are a kofer!

The worst part of this phenonemom is that a whole section of the Jewish people has been called every name in the book because they did not heed certain Gedolim in matters of statecraft or governance. Now, that is certainly not what “emunas chacomim” means.