More Than They Knew - Daily Dose of Wisdom

The Divine breathes within the words of the sages.

Even those things they themselves did not grasp, that we have only discovered centuries later, even that can be found in the nuances of their sayings and writings.

Based on letters and talks of the Rebbe, Rabbi M. M. Schneerson

From the wisdom of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of righteous memory; words and condensation by Rabbi Tzvi Freeman. To order Rabbi Freeman’s book, Bringing Heaven Down to Earth, click here.

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February 9, 2010

More Than They Knew, V'Chulay

I deeply appreciate R' Tzvi Freeman's reply to my comment, since I have been an avid reader of his work for many years, and have used it in my divray Torah (publicly-spoken Torah thoughts).
OK, so I will try and understand the concept from his point of view. In my other life, as a scholar of English Literature, there is a school of thought known as the New Criticism, which postulates that once the poet has written the poem, it must stand by itself and cannot be interpreted in light of the poet's life, or mood, or what he ate for breakfast that morning.
Similarly, we may take the words of Chazal and read meaning into them which may be somewhat different from what they originally intended, but, as long as it isn't apikorsus, learn additional insights.
Is that correct? Or am I missing the point entirely?

Rabbi David Mark
Pompano Beach, fl

February 5, 2010

Re: The Words of the Sages

You're confusing two different concepts. This has nothing to do with being "closer to Sinai." Sure, that's also a factor, but not what this is talking about. We're talking about the way intelligence enters the world. Are ideas generated by the atoms of the human brain, or do our brains simply act as receivers to pick up truths from beyond? Or perhaps both dynamics occur at once.

The fact is, the way we say something reveals much deeper truths than the something that was said--the media contains a depth beyond the message. It seems there is something our non-verbal self knows and it's not telling that to the verbal self--but it's coming out nonetheless in our choice of words.

So too, these sages had truths that they themselves were not (verbally) aware of--yet these truths are nonetheless expressed in nuances of language.

Rabbi Tzvi Freeman

February 4, 2010

The Words of the Sages

I've always had a problem with this concept, going back to my days at YU-- what I call "The Law of Progressive Dumbness"-- meaning, that the farther we get from the Source (Sinai, for example), the harder it is to reclaim the true fire of an idea. Similarly, I have serious doubts that a Talmudic rabbi was closer to G-d than a contemporary rabbinic scholar using the same sources for study.
Therefore, I disagree that there are "nuances of untaught truth" in the words of the early sages-- we have to assume that they did the best they could with the materials at hand, but I believe that a Soloveitchik or a Heschel of today could be their equal, theologically and halachically.

Rabbi David Mark
Pompano Beach, FL