Thursday, March 29, 2012

What To Do

Sometimes we find ourselves at a crossroads in life and don't know what to do. We know that most decisions have spiritual implications so it is worthwhile to solicit the opinion of someone who is both highly knowledgable and his behavior reflects the Dvar Hashem. This is called a "Rebbe". עשה לך רב. This Rav can help restore a sense of clarity and even if ultimately one realizes that an incorrect decision was made [we are all human and err - even Rabbanim, even the Beis Din Hagadol in the Beis Hamikdash, which is why there is a special korban brought when the community followed their errant ruling] one may still be at peace because all that could be done to make the correct decision was in fact done.

What some people do is they solicit the opinion of various Rabbanim. This might be a good idea because it gives one a more broad perspective but what it casues in many is absolute confusion.
So for such people the best approach is to decide on a given question to ask ONE Rav and to do whatever he decides.

In areas of strict halacha I think that this is definitely the right approach. But even in the grayer areas it is often the wisest thing to do to decide on one person. Life is confusing enough as it is without making it more confusing.