Re: maybe?

[music <music...>]

 I don't understand Judith's problem at all.  This description:

   it's easy to pontificate and make grand-sounding general statements
   with which  it seems one ought to solemnly agree, perhaps nodding
   sagely and stroking one's  beard if relevant.

was not the way Shlomo talked, and it isn't the way I talk.

   But first of all, just exactly WHAT is one supposed to be saying "yes"
   or "no"  to?

Shlomo's words were not about any specific question; they described an
approach to Jewish law (and legal decising) that is valid standing alone
and, indeed, is far more important than any specific decision--or, anyway,
than most such.

A Jewish legal decisor can look for--and easily find--reasons to say no, or
look for--and perhaps find, much of the time, if the decisor is learned and
knowledgeable enough--reasons to say yes.  What a difference that makes!

It's surely not quite the same as "the power of positive thinking"--but in
a perhaps similar way, it's pointing to the importance--perhaps the
centrality--of the *attitude* which a decisor brings to Jewish legal
decisions.

That has immense implications for, e.g., kol isha--and in many, many other
areas of Jewish law, musical and otherwise.

--Robert Cohen


   "... No.  The hard thing is to learn enough
   [i.e., about Judaism and Jewish law and commentary] to be able to say
   Yes.'"




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