Avira,
1. If they wrote it for generations they intended it for generations. Similarly, there were millions of nevi’im in Tanachic times but most said things that were only for their times. Whether something is applicable in a specific time and place is for the poskim to say.
2. Everyone knows that the Meiri’s writings were not known in their times. There are also many instances where a pesak is not mentioned because the writer did not see it.
3. If omission is rejection, why do anti-Zionists keep harping on thee three oaths?
4. “I do dismiss the psak of people who are incapable of seeing past the egel hazahav of Zionism”. Nu, I dismiss the pesak of those who repeat the sin of the spies.
5. The Meiri’s pesak is a sevara. If non-Jews act justly we cannot be worse with them. One can just as easily say that those poskim who spoke harshly about non-Jews were influenced by bad relations in their times and places. The Be’er haGola, however, wrote what he wrote (CM 348,5) around the time of the theChmielnitzky massacres. Perhaps he saw them as punishment for these actions. BTW, the Netziv says in his introduction to Sefer Bereisheet that the Avot were called yesharim because that is how they always behaved, even with the lowliest pagans.
Menu