Reply To: About the Government of Israel, I do shudder

Sam2: Either we speak a different language or we have different ideas about Psak. OBVIOUSLY- if there is no “tsad lehetter” ,one cannot be meikel. You cannot be “mattir bossor vecholov”, for example. HOWEVER, it is clear from the gemoro-in many places!- that relying upon the “meikel” side is better (odif) because its sources and reasoning are more solid. How else do you explain the gemoro in “baitzah 2B”? The gemoro clearly opines that it is better to discuss the issue according to the makillim, because to be meikel is more authoritative than being “machmir”. In other words, the gemoro PREFERS an opinion that is “meikel”. True, not always do we “pasken” like the “meikel”- but it is absolutely clear from the gemoro in many places, that, in halacha, you take the route of the “meikel’-if possible. See Pesochim 74B. See aveilus, see “sefeika d’oraisa’, which is only ossur miderabbonon, etc.