“Majority rule can break down in at least three ways”

Majority rule can break down in at least three ways. First, we can disagree as to whose vote counts, so that each side believes itself to have the true majority. Second, we can deny that the votes of those we disagree with are the result of genuine deliberation, rather than unreflective support of interests or ideologies; majority rule works only when minorities have a plausible hope of becoming majorities. Third, we can deny that the votes of those we disagree with reflect their free choices, rather than the implicit or explicit coercion of the powerful.

It is no secret that majority rule in Modern Orthodox halakhah has broken down in each of these ways. So we are left to face the question: Where should Halakhic authority rest?

Rabbi Aryeh Klapper, “When Majority Rule Breaks Down”, moderntoraleadership (10 September 2015) [https://moderntoraleadership.wordpress.com/2015/09/10/when-majority-rule-breaks-down/]