Electric Shavers: ‘Lo Taguru’
Story from Mishpacha:
“There was a young talmid chacham who published a big work against the use of electric shavers, under a pseudonym. When Rav Moshe heard about it, he was uncharacteristically upset, because all the rabbanim in America had allowed the use of electric shavers. Rav Moshe was upset that a young person would challenge that mesorah without receiving authorization from other gedolim. This young man once came to discuss it with Rav Moshe, but Rav Moshe wasn’t feeling well. After the fellow left, Rav Moshe asked who they had turned away.
“When he heard that it was the one who wrote against electric shavers, he was upset that they didn’t let him in.”
The story doesn’t end there. Rav Dovid Feinstein, who is not wont to talk this way, came over to Rav Michel and asked him, “Do you know this fellow?” When Rav Michel said he did, Rav Dovid said, “I never saw my father so upset about anything. Tell this man that if he values his life, he should calm down.”
“I relayed the message to the young man,” recalls Rav Michel, “that he had better keep quiet on this topic. And he listened.
“You want to hear a rebbishe moifes regarding Rav Moshe?” adds Rav Michel, with a twinkle in his eye. “The fellow had been childless for eight years. From the time that he began to quiet down regarding the shavers, the children started coming, one after another.”
End.
I say it depends.
If the man understood that the sugya is against “all the rabbis”, then he should not have been silent.