DovidBT,
That’s what bothers me. These LOR’s are supposed to be wise.
Why does the fact that poskim differ reflect on their wisdom in any way?
Why can’t they collaborate and come up with a common standard? Wouldn’t that promote unity among Jews?
Unity is nice and desirable, but our primary purpose here is fealty to Hashem and is Torah. We see in this week’s parsha the results of putting the ideal of unity above our service to Hashem: the tower of Bavel. If a rav has a mesora in halacha, it is wrong for him to compromise it for the sake of “unity”. True unity comes through respect for our diverse mesoros, not melting them into a single pot.
Is there a reason why there are so many groups of observant Jews who follow different practices?
Because we have been in galus with no Sanhedrin, king, judge, prophet, or kohen for 2000 years. All we have is our Torah and our mesora, and every Jew must keep what he has received to the best of his ability. Yes there are differences, but take a step back and compare our differences with the schisms within Christianity and Islam, who have not experienced anything like what we’ve experienced, and you’ll see that the observant Jewish world is actually quite united in belief and practice.