Reply To: Can a “Kosher” Restaurant Advertise it also is “Halal”

Avi K, what matters is not who he is but what kind of rov he is. An Ashkenazi person can become a Sefardi rav or vice versa, simply by learning the derech hapsak of that community. The Chacham Tzvi was a pure Ashkenazi by birth, but he learned in Sefardi yeshivos and got his smicha there, so he was a Sefardi chacham. But someone — whether A or S — who was educated only in A yeshivos, and knows only the A derech hapsak, cannot pasken shaylos for a S community. It’s not just Rama/Mechaber, it’s whole different sets of poskim, and different approaches to weighting them. Someone like Rav Ovadia or the Sdei Chemed knew both drochim, so they could pasken for each person according to his community.