Q. (see question above) If the majority of people consider the food repugnant, but to this individual it is not, can he eat it or would he transgress on the prohibition of bal teshaktzu?
A. P'ri Chodosh (Y.D. 84: 3) based on the Mishna (Chulin 77a) maintains that a food item that most people find repugnant and repulsive but this particular individual does not, he does not have to follow the usual majority rule, and he is permitted to eat that food. However if the food is detestable for all people and he is the sole exemption, he is prohibited to consume it. The reason being that we then say that his opinion becomes nullified by the rest of the people, and he does transgresses the prohibition of ba'al teshaktzu.
He adds that in the opposite case, when most people do not find the food repulsive, but to his sensitive mind it is, if he eats it, he will transgress that prohibition.
However, P'ri Mrgodim (384: 3) quoting Knesses Hagedola opines that one is prohibited to eat food that most people find repugnant and repulsive, even if he does not, and we do follow majority rule.
Horav Shlomo Miller's Shlit'a opinion is that if someone suffers from the very highly sensitive and delicate "aninei hadaas" condition, he will transgress this prohibition even if no one else is bothered or repulsed.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit'a
Important Numbers
