The decisions of rabbinic scholars over the centuries have been recorded in numerous volumes of Torah scholarship. These rabbinic responsa are used as legal precedents by all rabbis today in deciding halachic issues and questions that arise. Like all forms of legal decisions, these solutions to problems and issues are based upon intense scholarship and are buttressed by proofs from Talmudic sources and rabbinic scholarly works. However, in spite of all of this required legal expertise, all students of rabbinic responsa are aware that there is an element of intuition and personal creativity present as well in all rabbinic responsa.
This latitude of personal feeling and expression is founded on the Talmudic commentary concerning the compliment paid to King David - "Hashem eemo" - "The Lord is with him." The Talmud explains that this meant that King David's decisions on halachic matters were always accepted since "the Lord is with him." This is an expression of the intuition of the heart and the soul in solving a legal and otherwise seemingly logical problem, over and above the scholarship and research necessarily involved in providing a solution.
We find the use of this power of rabbinic intuition in the commentary of the great Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, eleventh century France) to the Torah. The Torah tells us that one of the eight special garments that the High Priest of Israel wore during the performance of his duties was the ephod. Whereas the Torah describes the other seven garments in some detail, there is no clear understanding in the verse as to what the ephod really was supposed to look like. Rashi states in his commentary that there was no rabbinic source that he could find that truly described what the garment in fact looked like. However, he says, "My heart tells me" that it was an apron-like garment, much like the leather aprons that the noblewomen of his time wore while riding their horses. Those aprons were worn to protect the fine garments from being soiled while riding in the dirt of the medieval streets.
Legend tells us that Rashi came to this piece of intuition through an incident that occurred while he was teaching Torah to his students in the study hall. While he was in the midst of his lecture and explanation, a loud clatter of hoof beats of many horses was heard outside of the window of the study hall. Distracted by the noise, Rashi glanced out of the window for an instant. He saw a large group of noblewomen riding by and, in that moment, noticed their riding aprons. He thought to himself: "Why should I have allowed myself to be so distracted from my Torah teaching in order to gaze upon the noblewomen riding by the window? Perhaps it is because the Lord intended to give me an insight into the ephod, which 'my heart now tells me' must have resembled the riding aprons of these noblewomen."
Following Rashi's example, many of the great men who wrote rabbinic responsa in Jewish history relied not only on their compelling knowledge of the Talmud and its commentators, but also upon what their hearts told them. In the 1890's, the great Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik wrote to Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Spector, the rabbi of Kaunas, Lithuania, concerning a complicated halachic issue: "Please answer me only in a few words - is it permissible or not? I can refute any legal proofs that you may bring either way, but I rely completely on your holy intuition as to the correct solution to this problem, for in this generation you are the person that 'the Lord is with him.'"
Judaism is scholarship, but it is not scholarship alone. It is not only the intellect that counts, but also the soul and the heart - the Godly intuition that is within holy people - that also guides us.
Shabat Shalom.
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Rabbi Berel Wein, noted author and lecturer, is founder of the Destiny Foundation, dedicated to educating Jews about their historical and ethical heritage (JewishDestiny.com).
This latitude of personal feeling and expression is founded on the Talmudic commentary concerning the compliment paid to King David - "Hashem eemo" - "The Lord is with him." The Talmud explains that this meant that King David's decisions on halachic matters were always accepted since "the Lord is with him." This is an expression of the intuition of the heart and the soul in solving a legal and otherwise seemingly logical problem, over and above the scholarship and research necessarily involved in providing a solution.
We find the use of this power of rabbinic intuition in the commentary of the great Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, eleventh century France) to the Torah. The Torah tells us that one of the eight special garments that the High Priest of Israel wore during the performance of his duties was the ephod. Whereas the Torah describes the other seven garments in some detail, there is no clear understanding in the verse as to what the ephod really was supposed to look like. Rashi states in his commentary that there was no rabbinic source that he could find that truly described what the garment in fact looked like. However, he says, "My heart tells me" that it was an apron-like garment, much like the leather aprons that the noblewomen of his time wore while riding their horses. Those aprons were worn to protect the fine garments from being soiled while riding in the dirt of the medieval streets.
Legend tells us that Rashi came to this piece of intuition through an incident that occurred while he was teaching Torah to his students in the study hall. While he was in the midst of his lecture and explanation, a loud clatter of hoof beats of many horses was heard outside of the window of the study hall. Distracted by the noise, Rashi glanced out of the window for an instant. He saw a large group of noblewomen riding by and, in that moment, noticed their riding aprons. He thought to himself: "Why should I have allowed myself to be so distracted from my Torah teaching in order to gaze upon the noblewomen riding by the window? Perhaps it is because the Lord intended to give me an insight into the ephod, which 'my heart now tells me' must have resembled the riding aprons of these noblewomen."
Following Rashi's example, many of the great men who wrote rabbinic responsa in Jewish history relied not only on their compelling knowledge of the Talmud and its commentators, but also upon what their hearts told them. In the 1890's, the great Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik wrote to Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Spector, the rabbi of Kaunas, Lithuania, concerning a complicated halachic issue: "Please answer me only in a few words - is it permissible or not? I can refute any legal proofs that you may bring either way, but I rely completely on your holy intuition as to the correct solution to this problem, for in this generation you are the person that 'the Lord is with him.'"
Judaism is scholarship, but it is not scholarship alone. It is not only the intellect that counts, but also the soul and the heart - the Godly intuition that is within holy people - that also guides us.
Shabat Shalom.
----------------------------------
Rabbi Berel Wein, noted author and lecturer, is founder of the Destiny Foundation, dedicated to educating Jews about their historical and ethical heritage (JewishDestiny.com).