Interesting Psak: Not Really Sure

Here is a good example of why you cannot follow halachic decisions that you see publicized in the various media, whether it is on walls, the Internet, newspapers and the like. You should only follow halachic decisions that you see in their original source, that you heard directly from the source or from a trusted (by you) person who will be relaying accurately the decision.

The haredi city of Elad has a shortage of yeshiva ketanas relative to the number of boys graduating 8th grades from the various talmud torahs. A group of parents went to Rav Steinman to seek advice regarding whether they should be sending boys to study in established yeshivas in other cities or if they should open new yeshivas in Elad to accommodate the influx of graduates. Should they strengthen existing yeshivas, making them larger, or should they open new yeshivas, each of which will be smaller?

Now we have to hope that the parents got their answer directly from Rav Steinman and not from the media. If they got it from the media they would not know what to do. Bechadrei and Kikar are each reporting that Rav Steinman answered that they should open a new local yeshiva. According to these reports, Rav Steinman said that better there should be more small yeshivas that each cater to a different type of boy, rather than fewer large yeshivas. When the yeshiva is too large it can have a negative impact on a large percentage of the students.

However, if they were getting their answer from the newspaper (the haredi newspaper "Bakehilla"), they would do the exact opposite. According to the newspaper report of Rav Steinman's answer, he said it is better to strengthen the existing yeshivas rather than open new small yeshivas. according to this report Rav Steinman said that the goal should be to have as many students as possible in one yeshiva, as this creates a very significant atmosphere for learning, rather than in smalll yeshivas which will affect the quality of the learning.

Whatever his answer was as to what they should be doing, I hope they got it from him directly and did not rely on publicized piskei halacha (unless it is publicized by the posek writing it in a sefer).

This should be an indication to us that when we hear publicized piskei halacha, it might be fine to debate and try to understand the psak and the reasoning behind it, but we should not act on it until it is confirmed that that was actually the psak.

Don't run out and change your hanhagos just because you saw a psak written somewhere on the Internet or on a poster on a wall or in a newspaper.