There seems to be a common misconception that we are unable to comparatively assess the level of various Gedolim. If I ask you how you know your next door neighbor is not as great as Rav Moshe Feinstein, you would hopefully have an answer, even though you didn’t give either a bechinah. Do you know if the Chofetz Chaim is greater than, say, Rav Steinman, if you did not give either a bechinah? The standard you use to determine if someone is a godol or not is the same standard you use to determine who is greater. You may not always know, but sometimes, like in the example I gave you, it is obvious. It is knowable in the other cases I mentioned as well, in the same way. We can compare “levels” – in fact, we need to in order to judge who is an authority in the first place! If you can’t compare levels then how are you to know that someone is a godol? The fact that he is “accepted” as a godol only means that many people have judged his “level” to be that of a godol. But if you cannot compare levels, then these people have no right to accept him as a godol in the first place. And the same common sense that tells you so-and-so stands out among his peers making him an authority, tells you that certain so-and-so’s stand out even more. Or less. Part of knowing who to follow is to know who is greater. Godol mimenu b’chochma ubaminyan is an assessment that it legitimately made. And as Rav Shach writes – if you dont know who to follow, follow whoever is greater – and, he adds, you can of course tell who is greater. If you yourself dont know, then thats fine – not everyone can know the answer to all questions they encounter – but why in the world would you say nobody else can know? And it’s an error in logic, too, because they themselves compared “levels” of other people! i.e.: “Rav Ovadia Yosef shlita is the leading Sefardi posek of our times.” And how would they know this if you cannot compare him to other sefardi poskim? And how can one know whether “any of us are on the madreiga of assessing the ‘levels’ of other people” unless you assessed the levels of all those other people who said arent “on the “madgreigah” to do that? If i were to ask you who is greater – Rav Ovadiah or Rabi Avika — would you say you cannot compare people? Rav Ovadiah or the Rambam? Avraham Avinu? So clearly, we can compare “levels”, its just that to some, certain comparisons are “obvious” and others are not. Well, to other people, perhaps who are more knowledgable and skilled in assessing these kinds of values, other comparisons are also obvious. The source is pretty much common sense — when you ask a shailah youre relying on the Torah knowledge and ehrlichkeit of the posek, so why would you follow the smaller one over the bigger one? If I were to say that in a medical issue you should do what the bigger doctors say, or regarding your car problems you shoudl do what the greater experts say, that would be common sense, no? Here that is even more the case. In YD 100, the pischei teshuva bringsd a disagreement in the poskim. SOme hold that if you ask a Rav A shailah, follow what he says, and he is wrong. unless you are asking one of the established poskim, you are considered a meizid. Others hold that even if a woman asks her friend and follwos what she says, and the frind turns out ot be wrong, she is nto a meizid, since she honestly, if foolishhly, believed that she was doing the right thing. The idea that as long as a rabbi tells you something youre safe if you follow him is not correct. So therefore, when Rav Shach ZTL was asked by a Yeshiva bochur what he should do in a case of machlokes haposkim, he told him (Michtavim Umaamarim Vol. 3 #213) that in the absense of a family tradition of following a given shitah – quote – “you should follow the posek that is a greater godol batorah.” He adds: “And it is possible to know who is greater, for example, here in EY in many things we should follow the rulings of the Chazon Ish”. As far as how to tell who is greater, as Rav Shach says, it is possible, The problem is, when often use standards to identify Gedolim that skew our ability to know who’s greater.
Every generation has its Gedolei Hador who Klal Yisroel relies on, because they are the greatest authorities of the generation. As we learn in Pirkei Avos – Moshe gave the Torah to Yehoshua, who gave it t othe zekeinim, who gave it to the neviim who gave it to the anshei keneses hagedolah etc etc etc throughout the entire mesechta. What does this mean? Isnt it true that the entire nation got the Torah and we teach it to all our children? Why does it say only the gedolim gave it to the next generation of gedolim? The answer is, that every generation learns Torah form the Gedolim of their generaiton, and those who learn so well that they can teach it authoritatively to the generaiton, well, they become one of the Gedolim! Our entire relligion is based on authority. So imagine Pirkei Avos extending to our generaitons. Who would be the givers and receivers of Torah. The teachers of the geenraiton? You would have the Chofetz Chaim, the Chazon Ish, Rav Chaim Ozer, the Brisker Rav, Rav Ahron Kotler, to name just the most obvious. When The Chofezt Chaim wanted ot move to eretz yisroel and Rav Chaim Ozewr asked him but if you move, who will lead klal yisroel here? The Chofezt Chaim asnwered what do you mean? – Rav Elchonon Wasserman will! When they asked Rav Elchonon who will lead Klal Yisroel after Rav Chaim was niftar, he said the Briker Rav should – since he has a very strong Mesorah. More often than not, when the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah used to meet, everyone voiced their opinion, unitl Rav Ahron Kotler stated his – then they all acquiesed to whatever Rav Ahron said. Rav Yaakov Kminetzky once said about Rav Ahron, “He has gotten so great I dont think I can even disagree with him any longer.” Of course there can be – and is – disagreement among Gedoli, just as there always was. However, if you know that ther is in fact a consensus among the Gedolei HaDor – and by that I mean those great enough to be authoritative leaders of the generation, and more – if all those Gedolim have stated that the reason there is such a consensus in these issues is because it is simply an issue of basic Judaism, and any deviation is simply idolatry, and not based on Torah but personal negiyus or distorted values, NOT legitimate Torah arguments, and that nobody has any right to follow any dissenting opinions on these matters regardless of how you were brought up, and even though there are some talmidei chachamim and rabbis who may dissent, their dissenting is like what happened in the days of the egel or Korach or shabse tzvi, and they must be ignored, then if you tell me yes but Rabbi so-and-so – or many rabbi so-and-sos, dissented, I will tell you OK, so? Ignore them. And then if I show you that the opinion of the Gedolim happens to be clear from a Torah perspective, so glaringly obvious that the dissenters have nothing to say in response, and what they do muster in their defense can be easily disproven logically, sometimes even in a laughable manner, then you should all the more so throw your hands up to heaven and thank Hashm shehivdilanu min hatoim venasan lanu toras emes. And then, if I show you that some great respected scholars among the dissenters (though of course not nearly in the league of the Gedolim) have actually forged documents and purposely concealed facts in their own seforim to try to convince people of the correctness of their position, then what in the world are we talking about?