Method
Rabbi Epstein tends to take a lenient view (le-kula) but decidedly without compromising in any form on the power and rule of Jewish law. When established custom is in conflict with theoretical halakha, Rabbi Epstein tends to side with local custom, to a greater extent than is the case in works such as the Mishnah Berurah.
Rabbi Moshe Feinstein once said that the decisions of the Aruch HaShulchan — who was a full-time Rav — take precedence over many poskim who were not active rabbanim. A Rav takes into consideration more than just the abstract and black-and-white concepts of the halachah when rendering a halachic opinion.
Read more about this topic: Aruch HaShulchan
Famous quotes containing the word method:
“There is assuredly no more effectual method of clearing up one’s own mind on any subject than by talking it over, so to speak, with men of real power and grasp, who have considered it from a totally different point of view.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“I have a new method of poetry. All you got to do is look over your notebooks ... or lay down on a couch, and think of anything that comes into your head, especially the miseries.... Then arrange in lines of two, three or four words each, don’t bother about sentences, in sections of two, three or four lines each.”
—Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926)
“I am not afraid of the priests in the long-run. Scientific method is the white ant which will slowly but surely destroy their fortifications. And the importance of scientific method in modern practical life—always growing and increasing—is the guarantee for the gradual emancipation of the ignorant upper and lower classes, the former of whom especially are the strength of the priests.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)