Daas Torah: The Authority of Gedolei Torah, Binding Psak, and Guidance Beyond Halachah

Transcript

I guess we could call it, inyanei d'yoma: the sheitel, the water, the tzitzis, the shaychtim. Controversy, controversy. Now, before we even get into the guf ha-shaila, before we even get into the actual safek in halacha, there seems to be an underlying supreme halacha, which l'choira will dictate our hanhaga in these shailos either way. That is the horaah of a gadol hador. Rabbi Yashiv did say it, Rabbi Yashiv didn't say it, did he say it like this, was he used these words, those words? It's all about Rabbi Yashiv, p'sak. What does that mean? That means that if a gadol paskens, it becomes binding on Klal Yisrael to follow. Now, is that true? If, let's say, a gadol in Eretz Yisrael paskens a shaila, is that binding for all of Klal Yisrael, including those that live in America? Who said it's binding bichlal? We know there's something called the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin with the lishkas hagazis was, Meira horaah b'Yisrael, shemisham teitzei horaah b'Yisrael, and that anyone who argued on the p'sak of the lishkas hagazis was over an aveirah. The Torah speaks about the person who goes against the lishkas hagazis. You're not allowed to do it. It's one of the chiyuvei misah. He goes against the p'sak. Of the lishkas hagazis. Question is, now that we don't have a lishkas hagazis, now that we don't have a Sanhedrin, is it possible to say that a gadol b'Yisrael, or let us, for argument's sake, say the gadol b'Yisrael, which of course is given to interpretation, the gadol hador, is his psak binding on everybody? Where does it say that we're mechuyiv to listen to the psak of the gadol hador? Or even, to make it more complicated, a gadol hador. I mean, we're not here to take a ruler and measure who's bigger and who's smaller. So let us say, for argument's sake, he's not the gadol hador, but a gadol hador, because, I mean, who is who to decide? I mean, I'm sure different crowds have different opinions of who is a gadol or the gadol. But let us say that definitely a gadol, l'chaira a gadol. So if a gadol paskens, who says that that becomes binding on us? There's a Marik in the Teshuvos, siman kuf samach aleph, and a Rivash in siman reish ayin aleph, that says clearly that a posek, an adam gadol, can only pasken for his crowd of people, so to speak. Which means he could pasken for his yeshiva. If he's a rav, he could pasken for his shul. If he is a shtadlan rav, let's say, which means he's the rav of an entire area, so for that area he could pasken. But it's not necessarily that he could pasken—I don't mean that he can't—but that it's binding, so to speak. Obligation for everyone to follow if it's not in his area. If you notice, ... by the Sefardim, the Vad Yosef always says, us, the Sefardim, that we mekabel the hora'ah of the Maran because he was morah d'ara. He uses always the lashon that he was morah d'ara. What does morah d'ara mean? He was the rav in Eretz Yisrael. He was tzfas, so he was considered the morah d'ara in Eretz Yisrael. So they accepted his psak. So if it's not morah d'ara, me'eicha teisi v'chuiv to rely on that? Who says you're mechuyav to listen to it? Which means a gadol in Eretz Yisrael, whether it be Bnei Brak or Yerushalayim, what makes it binding for the other place? Or al kol panim, if you want to say Eretz Yisrael is one, what makes it binding for the rest of the world? And like I show you from the Maharik and the Rivash, that after the lishkas hagazis, there's no such a thing as a person that goes against the psak of the lishkas hagazis. There's no such thing. We don't find that there's anywhere in the halacha a person went against the hora'ah. You don't have that. That's only by the lishkas hagazis. And then, hachanami, the Maharik and the Rivash are saying that the psak of a gadol is only binding to his community, his peoples. So the question is, how does that become binding for us as—

Well, so this goes into another discussion. And this is a very delicate discussion, because it's given to interpretation, and not only interpretation, but also different chugim, parts of Klal Yisrael, view this concept differently, and that is das Torah. Which means that just because it's not binding in halacha, does that mean that das Torah can't tell us and dictate to us what to do? Which means if he's a talmid chacham and an adam gadol, so his daas, even if in hilchos horaah it's not binding, but maybe in hilchos das Torah, quote unquote, it is binding. Das Torah. In Israel today, whenever you put out a psak, it's always, it's always a hakdamah. They always mark it with the words das Torah. What is this das Torah? What does it mean? What is it? So I'd like to begin with a little research on what exactly is das Torah. What does it mean? You see, on one hand we're saying that horaah not necessarily is binding on the person who is not under the command and the auspices of the rav that's paskening or the gadol that's paskening. Unless you'll say the gadol hador, let's say Rav Moshe. Moshe maybe was the gadol hador l'chol hadoros, maybe. We don't find today that we could give such a broad blanket statement about anybody. So then what's binding on me? Just because he said it, that means I'm mechuyav to listen to it? The answer might be that there's something called das Torah, which is, I guess, equivalent or it's above and beyond the chiyuvei of the dinim of horaah. Let's discuss what I mean with this. There's an interesting Mishnah in Avos. The Mishnah says, in Kinyan HaTorah, shanu chachamim בלשון המשנה, בָּרוּר שבחר בהם ובמשנתם. Thank you. The one who chose בהם, in the talmidei chachamim, ובמשנתם, and their learning, which we will soon see from the Rishonim, the exact interpretation of בהם ובמשנתם. Anyways, R' Meir אומר. R' Meir says, כל העוסק בתורה לשמה זוכה לדברים הרבה. זוכה for many things. ולא עוד, שכל העולם כולו כדאי הוא לו, the whole world is worth it for him. שנברא בשבילו, like Rashi says, the world was created for him. נקרא רֵעַ, he's called a friend. אהוב, אוהב את המקום, אוהב את הבריות, משמח המקום, משמח את הבריות. Now, one of the things that it says about the talmid chacham, which is עוסק בתורה לשמה, ונהנין ממנו עצה ותושיה. We get from him counsel, עצה ותושיה, counsel. Says the Tiferes Yisrael, שהקדוש ברוך הוא יכונן לו כוח בלשון לימודים, להטות לב שומעי דבריו אליו. What is תושיה? הַנְהָגַת הָעֵצָה. Hainu shenehenin midvarav b'shaas shemedaber, v'hahanaah hatoysiah, hainu shenehenin k'sha'oysim k'dvarav. You do like his words. We do like his words. We have hanaah, which means we have benefit. That's pshat. Nehenin mimenu, eitzah v'seishiah, which means that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives him a certain eloquence to be able to, be able to, what's the word, communicate. And when he communicates and you listen to what he communicates, toyshiah. You have only gain from it. Now what is this eitzah v'toyshiah? Is it in Yonim ruchniyim? Chochmah, Talmud Chacham? A chacham knows about inyonim ruchniyim. I mean, what else could you get from a Talmud Chacham? Could you get business advice from a Talmud Chacham? The Mishnah doesn't say. All the Mishnah says is, Nehenin mimenu eitzah v'seishiah. Maybe he gives you good advice, which means, again, it's not halachah, because if it's halachah, it's not good advice. So here we find in the Mishnah that besides what a gadol gives you, hora'ah, psak, he also gives you eitzah v'seishiah. And maybe the eitzah v'seishiah is in...

And in ruchniyus, which yeshiva I should go to, you know, a lot, there's a lot. I mean, different things which, when it gets to ruchniyus, you can get counsel from a adam gadol. Nowhere does it say that it's anything but ruchniyus, except for the Meiri. The Meiri says clearly on this Mishnah, Bnei adam nehenin mimenu lihimalech bo, ulehisyaetz ito, eich lehisnaheg b'ma'asim hagashmiyim. The Meiri sticks in the word that it's talking about ma'asim hagashmiyim, that the advice you're getting, you are getting from a talmid chacham even in inyanim gashmiyim, which means not only ruchniyus. Gashmiyus-dike things too, we can get advice from a talmid chacham, and this is what kol ha'osek baTorah lishmah, something that a talmid chacham who's osek lishmah has the ability to do. The question is, how? How does he have the ability to do this? I mean, if he's not melumad in the world of gashmiyus, what does he know? How does he know? It's very easy to go over to a person that doesn't have any taavos olam hazeh and start asking him about eitzes in olam hazeh. He looks at you, he doesn't have the same frame of mind as you. He doesn't live in the same world, so to speak, as you. So how can he give you an eitzah and a seichah about something that he has no shaychus to? Imagine in asking a shaila with the lack of yediah that he has. In halacha, like he would have in Yoni Gashmi, and the halacha would be completely false. If he paskened in halacha with the background that he had, like he has in gashmius, you know the halacha would come out incorrect. So how could a person rely on the eitzah v'seichel, like the meiri says, even in yoni gashmi? So I want to quote you an interesting Gemara Bava Basra. Gemara Bava Basra says a big yesod. Chacham adif minavi. Gemara like this: Amar Rav Dimi d'min Cheifa, v'yom shecharav Beis HaMikdash nitla nevuah min haneviim. The nevuah was taken away from the neviim and nitla l'chachamim. It was given to the chachamim, the talmidei chachamim. Says the Gemara, atu chacham lav navi hu? What, a chacham is not a navi? Hachi kaamar: af al pi shenitla min haneviim, min hachacham lo nitla. Amar Abaye: v'chacham adif minavi. A chacham is better than a navi. Why is a chacham better than a navi? A navi sees. The yesod of nevuah is that he sees, but other people can't see. As a matter of fact, we spoke many times that there's different levels and there's different types, I guess for lack of a better word, of nevuah. There's somebody who's a navi. There's somebody who's a roeh. Shmuel was called a roeh; he wasn't called a navi. Shmuel was called Shmuel HaRoeh. You aware of that? That Shmuel was called HaRoeh in Tanach. Shmuel was referred to not Shmuel HaNavi, but Shmuel HaRo'eh. For example, when Shaul went to know where his donkeys were, he lost them, his father sent him to find it, it says, Tanach, that he went to the ro'eh, because that was the custom, that whenever you needed something, you would go to the ro'eh. So the mefarshim, the Malbim, the Rishonim explain what's a ro'eh and what's a navi, what's the difference between a ro'eh and a navi. So he explains that a ro'eh, he sees from far what you can't see because he's on a higher level. For example, when you want to see far, what do you do? You go up on a high mountain. You go up on one of those towering—what do they call that? No, but the tower where they search with the binoculars, watchtower. You go up on a watchtower. When you're high up, you see far. The ro'eh, since he was on a higher level, he was able to see farther. So could be we could say that's pshat in the Gemara. What the Gemara means, chacham is adif mi'navi, because the navi is the taych, he sees b'nevuah. The chacham sees because he sees farther than you. That's pshat, chacham adif mi'navi. And I think that's what the Zohar means. The Zohar brings down, I saw in Shemos, vav, pasuk beis, the—

The difference between a navi and a chacham is that a navi is sometimes, and a chacham is always. That's why navi is adif michacham. Sorry, chacham adif minavi, because a navi is sometimes, and a chacham is always. That's the chiluk between a navi and a chacham, and a chacham adif minavi. What does he mean? It could mean this yesod, that the navi is given the information, so he's limited to what's given to him. For example, if the Ribbono Shel Olam does not want the navi to see something, he won't see it. The biggest raya: Yitzchak—I'm sorry, Yaakov. Yaakov didn't know that Yosef was killed. I mean, was alive, but he wasn't killed, right? Yaakov was a navi, and the answer is, sometimes binevuah things are held back from you. Not everything is niglah binevuah. A chacham, who sees it because of who he is, his nevuah, so to speak, is because he's on a higher level. So meila, chacham adif minavi isn't so much in the sometimes and always, but because it's always, that means that he sees what the navi doesn't see. That's what it is. Again, let me tell you what I'm trying to do. The Gemara tells me that a chacham is adif minavi. We know that there's a halacha of eilef tishmaun to a navi, right? It's rather interesting. You have to know where exactly is the eilef tishmaun by a chacham, so mistama it has to do with the pasuk, lasosim badavar asher yagid lecha, al yamin usmol, which we'll get to later. Because it's the eretz mashmi, even if they tell you a mistake, you're supposed to listen to them, and we'll discuss that. That's part of what we have to discuss. But as you will see, the shiur progresses brick by brick, step by step, pahadrog. Here we have a yesod, the Gemara Bava Basra, that a chacham is not stam like a navi; it's even adif minavi. So when it's nitla nevuah, the chacham is even bigger, which means the chacham without nevuah is greater than the navi with nevuah. What's the nafka mina? So the Zohar says, because this is sometimes and this is always. Could be the depth of the words of the Zohar are, since the chacham is b'etzem, he sees, so then he sees everything. The navi, when it's sometimes, he's limited to the times that it's given to him. So even in what he sees, it's limited to what it's given to him. But it's not going to. Chacham adif minavi, that the chacham is a ro'eh b'etzem, which we'll soon see, the chacham is a ro'eh b'etzem, and since he's a ro'eh b'etzem, because of his chachmas haTorah, it's not limited to what's given to him to see. He sees everything. He sees all the angles. He sees all the outcomes. That's the maila of chacham adif minavi. What's your question? Chacham adif minavi is the chacham is taka a bigger ro'eh than a navi. The chacham is greater than the navi. And the pshat is because the chacham is b'etzem a ro'eh. And mimeila, his re'iyah could be as much more than the re'iyah of a navi. When the navi sees, he sees only what the Ribbono Shel Olam wants him to know, only what the Ribbono Shel Olam wants him to see. We find by Yechezkel, Yechezkel, shteigt af Klal. I wasn't a navi, and they were neviim. Inu shapir chazi, I saw more than them, says Daniel. They were the neviim, and I was not the navi, and I saw more than them. That's pshat, right? That's not what happened by Daniel. Daniel was a navi? Not really. Were the other two tzaddikim alive, were they neviim? Does it say in the Gemara clearly, Inu shapir chazi, I saw more than them? They didn't see all the mareh that I saw. They didn't see it. So we see that the chacham is adif than the navi, that by the navi it's only what's given to them to see. But the chacham is be'etzem his re'iyah, his re'iyah that he sees. The Rashba. Let me read you a Rashba. Lachachamim, peirush sheyafigu b'sichlam devarim harbeh she'ein koach b'seichel hativi lahasigam. Vechacham adif min navi, peirush, me'osei navi sheyesh lo koach liros hasidos, ve'ein lo derech hanevuah shehem mitzad hachochmah sheruach hakodesh shoreh alav, ki hanevuah einah shoreh ela al chacham, which means that—

The nevuah that the chacham has is different than the nevuah that the navi has. What's the pshat? Le'eimoi darkei hanevuah sheheim מצד החכמה, שרוח שכינה שורה עליו, which means that the navi that is given the nevuah is less than the chacham who's בעצם a navi because he has ruach hakodesh. Many times we discussed Rashi was written b'ruach hakodesh. What does that mean, he was written b'ruach hakodesh? Does that mean that somebody came and taught him what to write or to say? So we explained that it's not what it is, that the ruach haShechinah is shורה עליו, and because he has the ruach haShechinah that's shורה עליו, he's mechaven to the emes. He sees what somebody else wouldn't see in the Torah. This is the taich, l'choira. You found the other Rashba? Because the other Rashba is mamash the word-for-word what I told you a moment ago, that chacham is adif minavi because he sees more than the navi. I want to show it to you clearly in the Rashba. Al kol panim, the Ritva is one step more. The Ritva is saying there's two types of nevuah. There's a nevuah that's given, and there's a nevuah b'etzem. The chacham is a navi b'etzem. And since he's a navi b'etzem, that the ruach haShechinah is shורה עליו, kemo shebi'er haRambam, memeila he's adif, and he could be, and he could chap, bimasig, what she'ein koach besechel hativi l'hasig. Rashi, you have it? You have the old Rashba, you have it? Igros Chazon Ish. Haderech l'emunas chachamim. What is the derech to emunas chachamim? What's the derech? Says the Chazon Ish one line: Teshuva. Emunas chachamim תלויה באמונת החכמה בכלל. Emunas chachamim is dependent on belief in the chacham itself. If you believe in the chacham, you have to believe in the chachamim. Why? Because ein chochmah b'olameinu bilti im avra lanu derech nishmas chacham chai. The only chochmah we have today, it has to go through derech nishmas chacham chai. So if you want to believe in Torah, you have to believe in the chachamim who are teaching the Torah. Otherwise there's no such thing as Torah. Which means if a person says, I believe in Torah miSinai, he has no emunah. You should write him off, says the Chazon Ish. He has to believe, and we'll soon explain what that means, you have to believe in Torah mehachachamim. To believe that this Torah from Sinai, that means you don't believe in Torah. To believe that the Torah originated in Sinai, and it is taught through Moshe kibel Torah miSinai, u'mesara liYehoshua, Yehoshua l'zekeinim, that's called believing in Torah. That's Torah. You want to know I believe in Torah? I believe in the Torah of the chachamim. Don't say I believe in Hashem's Torah. Because that means you don't believe in Torah. We have to explain what that means. We have here some interesting information. Let us process that a chacham is adif minavi. Chacham is adif minavi. That what he sees is much more than the navi. That's what it says. So if you're going to come and say, like the Zohar, kepshutai, not more, but more times, kepshutai, that's not what it means. And if you look at the Rishonim, it's mashma the Rishonim learn like this, the Gemara, that the chacham is capable of seeing more than the navi. Another yesod we have, that emunas chachamim is because it's based on emunah of Torah. And Torah has to be mehachacham. What's the pshat? So there's a very interesting Gra I would like to tell you over. The Gra in Mishlei, tes-vav aleph, says a tremendous yesod, that the chacham has all these mailos because he has siyata dishmaya. How is he zoche? What do you mean, zoche? So pashut you can learn one of two things. This is a natural...

Occurrence when a person learns, zocheh ledvarim harbeh, as a direct result. For example, if a person does exercise and he takes vitamins and he sleeps on time, he'll be healthy, right? Or the pshat is, no. If he does all this, bzechus this he'll be healthy. Ribbono Shel Olam will give him health. Pashut. There's such a thing as derech hateva. The derech hateva is that if you do this, the direct result is that you'll be healthy. So the question is, what's the zocheh ledvarim harbeh? Is the zocheh ledvarim harbeh as a direct result that if a person learns Torah, Torah gives him all this, or zocheh, zechus? The Gra learns that it's yatza nishma. That all the attributes that are given, it's not be'etzem, but it's a certain yatza nishma that's given to the person who learns Torah lishmah. I hear from Reb Elchanan. I'll tell you what I hear from Reb Elchanan, from the Gra. Let me tell you what I hear from the Gra. The eitzah of a soyshia is be'etzem what he has from the Torah, which means the Torah makes him smarter to see what nobody else sees, which is what we're taitching Chacham is adif minavi, that be'emes a chacham will see more than a navi, that the chacham sees be'etzem more because he's a roi, he's on a higher plateau. Or the taitz is, the Rebbeinu gives him a matanah that whatever he says is good. Why am I saying this? There's a very famous maiseh I said over many times from Reb Elchonon. And a person once came to ask him in business, should he or shouldn't he? Reb Elchonon had no shayches to business, nothing. He was so far from it that it was like talking Chinese to him. So the person, waiting for the answer, Reb Elchonon says, I'll tell you. Give me a few minutes. I want to think about it. So he gets up and he goes to the shelf, he takes out a Gemara, and he begins to learn. He begins to learn. Nope, comes back and he tells the person, listen, go, go, do it or don't do it, whatever the eitzah was. Rebbe, my case was brought in the Gemara. I saw you were learning the Gemara, Chullin, Bava Metzia, Bava Basra, whatever it was. Is my case in the Gemara? He said, your case? I don't even know what you're talking—I don't even know very much about what you're talking about, to be honest with you. So what's the eitzah? And the answer is, says Reb Elchonon, I want the siyata dishmaya. So when I learn, I have siyata dishmaya that I can answer you properly. I have no idea. Yeah, you have business... it's not going to get to me. I don't know what's going on in the business. What do we see from Reb Elchonon? That he understood that the eitzah of the seicha is not the eitzah. It's like a zechus. It's like a siyata dishmaya, that being that he's a person who learns Torah lishmah, he has a special matanah that what he says goes, so to speak. He has such a koach. I want to show you over an interesting emes'le Yaakov. You have the emes'le Yaakov? Which issur is stronger, the issur of nida or the issur of goyah? If a person would have a choice to either marry and live with a nida, or to marry a goyah. For example, we're in a gevala maiseh. A lot of times, a Yid will never marry a goy. Never marry. A rav with zicher never marry off a guy who's marrying a goyah, right? One who has a mesader kiddushin between a husband and a goyah, you're not going to find it. But between a husband and a nida, you'll find it. Again, today rabbanim don't do it, but I heard Rav Moshe yesterday. I asked Rav Dovid, Rav Dovid told me Rav Moshe used to do it. Remember we had a... Moshe, why not? What's wrong? This din doesn't keep Hilchos Niddah; it's his problem. But a goyah, chas v'shalom. Tell me, which issur is worse, the issur of nida or the issur of goyah? Nida is a lot worse. The issur of goyah might be only a derabbanan.

Could be it's a lav, could be it's a derabbanan, but it's not a kares. So technically it's much worse. So if you ask somebody which is worse, he would tell you, Avada, this is worse. So he quotes a Rambam. Very interesting Rambam. Rambam says like this: Aval ze, af al פי שאין בו מיתת בית דין, על יהיה קל בעיניך. Even though marrying a goyte, it's not issur chamur, but it shouldn't be קל בעיניך. Why? אלא יש בו הפסד שאין בכל העריות כמותו, because it has in it degradation, it has in it such a chisaron worse than all the arayos. שאין בכל העריות כמותו. שהבן מן הערווה בנו הוא לכל דבר. So a ben min haerva is his son, ובכלל ישראל ייחשד, ואף על פי שהוא ממזר. Even though he's a mamzer. והבן מן הגויה אינו בנו. But a ben from a goya is not his son. שנאמר כי יסיר את בנך מאחרי, מסיר אותך מליאס אחרי השם. The davar ze גורם לדבק בגויים, שבדילנו הקדוש ברוך הוא, and this causes us to go among the goyim. ולשוב מאחרי השם ולימוד מהם. Tell me something, is there a mekor for this Rambam? Is there a mekor for this Rambam? Is there a mekor? There's no mekor for this Rambam. This is the Rambam's chiddush. The Rambam is mechadesh that it's worse to marry a goyte than to marry a Yid because of his chashash. So, Reb Yankel אמר את היסוד. You see, the hachra'ah of a gadol כנגד the l'chora what's pashut in the din. The din would have been— That the goy is a lot worse, l'choira. The nida is a lot worse. So the Rambam is perek chaf lamed zayin. Wait, the Rambam is Rambam's issurei biah, halacha zayin, perek yud-beis, halacha zayin, perek chaf lamed zayin. So we have over here a tremendous yesod, that the hachra of a gadol—it's an interesting thing here—the hachra of a gadol is sometimes keneged the halachos. In the halacha l'choira, I would say that this is a kares and this is a lav. Af al pi kein, the chashdan—the right wording in Yiddish is chashdan—which means the scope of the gadol is to see that this is worse because this is about yahadus and this is about goyim, mimeila this becomes worse. What do you mean? Torah gives guidelines. There's a guideline. The guideline is a kares is a lot worse than a lav, no? Someone asks you, well, kares is worse than a lav. Zogt Reb Yankif, you see from here that the Rambam, in his hachra of the way he perceived, was machria that fakert, this is worse than this, and that's the way he learned today. We mustam, based on this Rambam, we decided that it's much worse to marry a goy than to marry a nida. And there's no mekor for this. There's no Rishonim, there's nothing. Yearly, it's the Rambam. He decided. This is what he decided. This is a hachra that the Rambam is machria based on his havsharah and his havanah. So we see that the chacham has a koach in havanah to be mishayer. So let me tell you over two more yesodos, and then we'll tie everything together. Who is raui to be a gadol? Who is raui to make a das Torah? Who is raui? We find that on one hand, you have in the heder minutes, it says, shia, he has koiches, he's able to see, he's able to machria, he sees what you don't see. How do you know what constitutes a gadol that's able to have this das Torah? Like this famous, I tell you many times by the Briskers, they say they're not mevatel talmidei chachamim. What do they do? They say he's not a talmid chacham, they're mevatel. It's very easy. Come, you say, of course you have to listen to a gadol. Yeah, but he's not a gadol. What constitutes a gadol? And then you'll see at the end what I'm trying to bring out, that tying everything together. So there's an interesting Gemara. The Gemara says in Chagigah, daf chaf-vav amud beis, Im rabcha doimeh l'malach Hashem, tevakesh Torah mipiv. If Rebbe is doimeh, is comparative, to a malach Hashem, you have to be mevakesh Torah mipiv. What exactly are the criteria of a malach Hashem? What does it mean? Im doimeh rabcha l'malach...

Hashem, tevakish Torah mipiv. You have to research Torah from him. So many mefarshim learn, Malach Hashem means that he has one goal. He has one job. A malach has one job. He does the job, that's it, he's over, it's finished. So if the Rebbe has one job, then tevakish Torah mipiv, which means his job is to teach Torah, do the mitzvahs. But if he has side curriculum, in the morning he's a rabbi, in the afternoon he's a stockbroker or whatever, or whatever, however you want to... it's not so pashut. It's not called a domeh rabcha l'malach Hashem. It's not so pashut. I don't want to get involved in the details, but derech klal that's pashut pshat, malach Hashem. He has one thing. Sometimes the stockbroker is l'shem shamayim because he has to support his family, so I don't... al ze lo ne'emar, I wasn't discussing that. But if it's the stockbroker because he has a good head and he also wants to be a stockbroker, so then the taich is he's in two places at the same time, which means he's nowhere. So domeh rabcha l'malach Hashem, al tevakish Torah mipiv. L'maaseh, in Shulchan Aruch, there is also a criteria brought to what a talmid chacham is. In Reish Mem Vav, se'if ches. You have it? HaRav she'eino holech b'derech tovah. He's not going in a good way, af al pi shechacham gadol hu, even though he's a big chacham, v'chol ha'am tzrichim lo, and everybody needs him. Ein lamedin mimenu ad sheyachsir l’motif, till he is chozer l’motif, which l’choira is the Gemara of im domeh Rabbanan l’malach Hashem. Obviously the Shulchan Aruch, Meran, is paskening that what’s called malach Hashem, eina holech b’derech toivah is not called malach Hashem. If he’s holech b’derech toivah, that’s called im domeh Rabbanan l’malach Hashem, which is not much of a criteria. As long as he’s doing the right things and he’s a chacham gadol, then you could go and ask him halacha l’maaseh. If you look at the Rambam in Sanhedrin, the Rambam brings very strong criteria for what a dayan is supposed to be. The Rambam, Sanhedrin, perek beis, halacha zayin and ches, says like this: Beis din shel shlosha, even the beis din of three, af al pi she’ein medakdekin bahem b’chol eilu ha’dvarim, even though we’re not medakdek that it should be like the Sanhedrin, tzarich sheyehei b’chol echad מהם shivah dvarim. This is called ein medakdekin. Listen to what’s called ein medakdekin בהם. You’re listening to a lashon of the Rambam. What’s called ein medakdekin בהם? Ein medakdekin בהם, but it needs at least seven things: sheyehei chochmah, anavah, yirah, sinas mamon, ahavas ha’emes, ahavas habriyos, baal shem tov. We would call this a tzaddik yesod olam. We’d call this a rosh galus, a rosh Sanhedrin, we’d call him. This is the beis din of three here. You understand what we're talking about, the beis din three. These are the ma'alos that are needed for a beis din of three. So it's interesting. On one hand, we're talking about, im domeh Rabcha l'malach Hashem, the Shulchan Aruch states he has to be a ... b'derech toiv. At the same time, a dayan seems to have very strong criteria of what makes up a dayan. He needs to have all these ma'alos. I told you over a few times that they want to reestablish the Sanhedrin bizman hazeh, back in Eretz Yisrael. Should we have a Sanhedrin? Now, a Sanhedrin doesn't really need the Beis Hamikdash, because the Sanhedrin is shayach, at least the Sanhedrin of twenty-three is shayach to make it even in the galus. You don't have to have dafka Lishkas HaGazis. In Yerushalayim you should have a Sanhedrin. So many were for it. The Tanna, Rabbi Yankiv Kamenetsky, was for it pretty much. So they went to Reb Zalman Sorotzkin. They asked him if they should reestablish the Sanhedrin. So he said it's a good idea maybe; it's not such a bad idea. So they asked him, but where are you going to find dayanim that have all these ma'alos? For example, sonei betza, sonei mamon, that they hate money. Not only that, the Gemara says what's called sonei mamon? Sheson'im mamonam. They hate their own money. Not that they hate somebody else's money. Somebody else's money, of course they're not supposed to; no one's supposed to want someone else's money. The ma'alah of the Sanhedrin is sonei mamonam b'din; they don't even want...

Their money. If it's their money that they had to fight to get it, that's already called sonei mamon b'din. After sonei mamon b'din, where are you going to find such people? You're going to find people that are sonei betza, that hate money. So Reb Zalman said, for a few dollars we'll find them also. A part dollar, you'll be able to find them also. You can get anything for a few dollars. The point being, you can't find people like this. These are people which are lemaalah, lemaalah min hadarga. These people are lemaalah min hadarga, right? These are people who are sonei mamon b'din. This is the beis din, the beis din of din. So the question is, so how does the dayan, the posek, and the moreh horaah differ from this? Does a moreh horaah have to have all these maalos? Does a person who, im domeh rabcha lemalach Hashem — Shulchan Aruch, perek ... — all the Shulchan Aruch says that he has to be holech bderech toivah. Otherwise, it doesn't say anything more than that, right? Chabad doesn't speak more, that he has to be the maalos of a Sanhedrin, of a beis din, of a dayan. Or I'll tell you more. There's a Ramban, Yoreh Deah, reish mem gimmel, beis. The Ramban says like this. It says like this: Talmidei chachamim sheTorasan umnasan, aval ein Torasan umnasan, chayav. A talmid chacham whose Torah is umnaso is patur from taxes. Someone who's not poterasim nasa has to pay taxes. Miom sheyesh lo me'at umnus, me'at maasar matil lisparnes bo kedei chayav. Uvchol sha'ah shehu poneh maasakav, chozer divrei Torah v'lo metader, nikra Torah terasim nasa. If a person just does parnassah kedei chayav, and whenever extra free time he has, that's called terasim nasa. Hanka, d'ein chiluk bein shehu tofes yeshiva o lo. You don't have to be a rosh yeshiva. It doesn't say anywhere you have to be a rosh yeshiva. If you're not a rosh yeshiva, you don't count. Not true. Talmid chacham, even if he's not tofes yeshiva, he doesn't have a yeshiva, he's still called, rak shehu muchzak l'talmid chacham b'doro, but he's a muchzak talmid chacham in his dor, which is—now pay close attention to Rambam—sheyodea lisa v'liten b'Torah. He knows how to shakla v'tarya in learning. He says a svara, he'll throw you back a svara. U'meivin mida'ato b'rov hamekomos b'Talmud. In most of the places—today we're lucky if a guy is b'rov hamekomos in the blatt he's learning—but the Rambam speaks about rov hamekomos b'Talmud, u'peirusham, u'v'psakav hageonim, v'Torasim nasa k'derech shenisba'er. V'af al gav d'ein b'doreinu achshav chacham l'inyan sheyihyeh lo litra d'hava im yevayeshen, even though we don't have the talmid chacham of the din of litra d'hava, which means if you embarrass a talmid chacham you have to pay him, b'kol makom l'inyan l'potro mimas ein medakdekin b'zeh, rak shehey muchzak l'talmid chacham kemo shenisba'er. U'v'chol makom yesh mekomos shagluf talmidei chachamim mimas, v'yesh roshos shelo l'potram. Today it's a shaylah l'maaseh. We pasken from chacham taxes, the Rambam says there's two opinions how it's today. Al kol panim. The Ramah speaks about a talmid chacham, the inyan mas, that it has to be lisa v'litin b'Torah, meivin, mitdaik b'rov b'kaymes haTalmud. So the Chazon Ish, in his Igros, and Emunah U'Bitachon, chelek gimmel as well, he speaks that this that the Ramah discusses Torahaso umnaso l'gabei nisim, and this is the criteria of a talmid chacham, this is the talmid chacham of today, what's called a talmid chacham l'chol davar. That's what you have to be. If you're looking to be a talmid chacham, this is it. That even the Ramah is speaking l'gabei taxes. Zogt the Chazon Ish, you see from this Ramah that this is called a talmid chacham. So we have interesting things here. On one hand we speak that a talmid chacham has to have all this, and if not, he's not a talmid chacham. At the same time we speak that a dayan has to have tremendous criteria according to the Rambam. He has to have middos mamash, mamash like a malach, ... l'malach Hashem, levakesh Torah mipiו. So the question is, maybe we don't have daas Torah today. Maybe it's maybe one out of a million. Is there a daas Torah when you go to your rav? Is there a daas Torah when you go to your rosh yeshiva? Maybe not.

If the yeshiva doesn't have this, or the rav doesn't have this criteria of Talmud chacham, so maybe he doesn't have the inyan of daas Torah. I found an interesting piskei teshuva last night. The Piskei Teshuva, Yoreh Deah siman reish mem gimmel, seif katan yud gimmel, says an interesting yesod, and this is what I'm getting back to. He says a yesod that someone who's running a yeshiva, or someone who has a shul, for his community he has daas Torah. And even though we discussed Talmud chacham, that it has to be a certain level and a criteria, so what happens if the local rav, the rav in your shul, knows a little Chumash and maybe not too much more, and that's what happens. And I don't mean anything personal, even though I do, that's not the point. Al kol panim, he becomes the Talmud chacham, and he has the din of daas Torah that we talk about, that he has eilav tishma. There's a din of eilav tishma. What's the pshat? So you see from here an interesting yesod. You see that it could be that daas Torah is not so much the person, but that daas Torah is the siyata dishmaya that the person will have. You see from the Piskei Teshuva that someone who is not, so to speak, quote unquote, knowledgeable in Torah, still has the criteria of Talmud chacham, of eilav tishma, and he becomes daas Torah here. Which means is, b'di'eved you can come to ask me also. And I know I don't qualify to any of the qualifications, but if I'm a shliach of the Rebbe, you could come. It's a chiddush. It's a very big chiddush. I know so little. I yitachen the Torah says, I baruch Hashem, I looked for this Piskei Teshuva, but dafke. I need a piskei teshuva to back me up. This is the piskei teshuva. So we see a big yisod, that it's not so much zocheh b'etzem, but it's more like he's zocheh, they give it to him. It's something that's given to the talmid chacham. So sometimes it's given to the talmid chacham when he's not as big as he should be or could be. But if he's a leader of a community or a yeshiva, he's given this, this, this nasius. So let me tell you over a drashas haran, which is peladik, which Tzais brings down and the Ramoisha and the teshuvas brings down, based on a Gemara in Bava Metzia. Gemara Bava Metzia, daf nun tes amud aleph. It's a whole story over here. So the Gemara like this. Says the Gemara like this: Tanur shel Achnai. It's not hasa. Chatchach chulyos. If they cut up a tanur chulyos by parts, v'nasan chol bein chulya l'chulya, Reb Eliezer metaher. Reb Eliezer holds it's tahor. The chachamim metam'ei. Chacham say it's tamei. Zehu tanur shel Achnai. And this is the tanur Achnai. What's Achnai? Achnai is a snake. Snake. Tanur shel Achnai. Yeah? So if you ever go to the shop and you want to know... Different ovens asked for maybe a snake oven, snake brand. Iin bam metzia, tap nun tes amud beis. What's the snake brand? Says the Gemara, Mai achinai? What's—since when do you call a tanner a snake? Rabbi Yehuda v'Shmuel shekiplo dvarim ka'achna zu b'tamur. They encircled it like a snake, and they were metameh, which means they wrapped it around with kashes and terutzim till they were metameh, which means this was the famous tanner. Tana, we learned: b'oso hayom heishiv Reb Eliezer kol teshuvos sheba'olam. Reb Eliezer, who held that it's tahor, he brought all the teshuvos sheba'olam, all the teshuvos. Reb Eliezer proved it and proved it and proved it. V'lo kiblu heim, they didn't accept. Amar lahem, he said to them, Im halachah kemosi, if the halachah is like me, charuv ze yochiach. This boxa tree should prove it. Nekar charuv mimkomo. So the boxa tree got uprooted. Charuv, boxa, prove it, and it proved it. So what happened? It jumped me'ama, v'amah l'arba me'os amah, like a missile. It turned into a missile. Amar lei, Ein meviin ra'ayah min hacharuv. You don't bring ra'ayos from a charuv. Chazar v'amar lahem, Im halachah kemosi, amas hamayim yochiach. So let's prove it from the water. Chazar, amas hamayim l'achoreihem. Amru lei, Ein meviin ra'ayah me'amas hamayim.

You know, being raised from the water. Chazar v'amar, Malacha k'maisi, kaislei beis hamedrash yeichichu. Let the walls prove it. Hitu kaislei beis hamedrash lipol. The walls are ready to fall, yeah? Here he's proving from the walls and from the water. You couldn't get more proof. What happened? Gara bהem Rabbi Yehoshua. Rabbi Yehoshua gave a scream. Amru lahem, Im talmid chacham menatzchem zeh, bahalachah atem mativchem? What are you getting involved over here? We're fighting, me and the talmid chacham are having a war in halachah. What are you... get out of it. It's your business. What are you getting involved over here? Lo naflu, mipnei kavodo shel Rabbi Yehoshua. So they didn't fall because of the kavod of Rabbi Yehoshua. V'lo zachu, they didn't stand straight, mipnei kavodo shel Eliezer. So the walls were stuck. Should they take the command from Rabbi Eliezer? Should they take the command? And don't forget, what was the command of Rabbi Eliezer? If I'm right, command wasn't stand. If I'm right, prove. And they stood because he was right. Not stam that he gave them a command. The kids were, vadayin matin v'omdin. They just stood like that. Chazar v'amru, Malacha k'maisi min hashamayim yeichichu. Let the shamayim prove. Yatzasa bas kol v'amrah. The bas kol came out and said, Mah lachem etzel Rabbi Eliezer? What do you want from Rabbi Eliezer? Halachah k'moso b'chol makom. What are you bothering my Rabbi Eliezer for? Halachah is like him everywhere. Amar Rabbi Yehoshua, so you think that Rabbi Yehoshua would throw the towel in, right? That's it, finished. You can't get a bigger raya, right? Hashem is maskim to Rabbi Eliezer. Amad Rabbi Yehoshua al raglav v'amar, Lo bashamayim hi. Finished. V'amar—one sec—mai lo bashamayim hi? Amar Rabbi Yirmiyah, shekvar nitnah Torah meHar Sinai. The Torah was already given from Sinai. Ein anu mashgichin b'bas kol. Shekvar kasavta b'Har Sinai b'Torah, achari rabim l'hatos. Finish, state the pasuk, achari rabim l'hatos. Comes along the Ran, the drashes, and he asks it a stirah shaylah. Eino chanami, loi bashamayim hi. But Reb Eliezer was paskening that this is the way it is. It's lo bashamayim, and just shamayim is proving that Reb Eliezer is right. Where does it say that Shamayim is going to tell us the halachos? Why is it not telling us? Reb Eliezer was paskening. Now make a cheshbon. They couldn't even disprove Reb Eliezer. This is very important. Did they disprove Reb Eliezer? No. But rov of the olam held differently than Reb Eliezer, so they were coming mikoach what? Acharei rabim l'hatos. Zogt the Ran, so what's the disproof against Reb Eliezer? What's the Torah lo bashamayim? And the teretz is, you see, vaiter, that even when it's wrong, if the halacha dictates acharei rabim l'hatos, then that becomes the halacha. It's not a question of right or wrong. It has to be gepaskened from this velt, and this velt is acharei rabim l'hatos. So even if Reb Eliezer said what he said, and Reb Eliezer was able to prove what he said, but since the horaah of it is acharei rabim l'hatos, so even when it's wrong, it's right. Even when it's wrong, it's right. Zogt the Ran, that's the pshat in the pasuk when we say, when we say, asher nasan lanu Toras emes. Chayei olam nata b'socheinu. What's asher nasan lanu Toras emes? So the Ran, l'ktzos puts this down in hakdamah, that He was nosan lanu. He gave to us the Torahs shebichsav. In other words, it wasn't given to us Torahs emes. It was given to us that we should make Torahs emes. Asher nasan lanu. The Ketzos in hakdamah brings the Ran, asher nasan lanu. V'zu hi birchas haTorah, asher nasan lanu Toras emes, sheha'emes itanu. Chayei olam nata b'socheinu. He planted it by us. He says, because otherwise you have a kashya. Imagine if a doctor makes a mistake in medicine. What are you going to come and say? Hey, it's not going to kill the guy because the doctor said so. The doctor said so. Yeah, but if it's not healthy, it's not healthy. If it kills, it'll kill you. It's not the way it works in Torah. The way it works in Torah is, Chayei olam nata b'socheinu. Life, chayei olam, nata b'socheinu. He planted among us. So I just want to tell you over another thing which I saw, which is the opposite of this. It's very interesting.

And then we'll tie up everything, you'll see what I want. There's a very nice maiseh, which is brought down in the hakdamah of the Reb Chaim, the new Reb Chaim's in Bava Metzia. Gerlitz put out a Reb Chaim on Bava Metzia. He brings a very nice maiseh, a very interesting maiseh. There's a shailah if you have Krias HaTorah with six that didn't hear yet and four that heard already, just like Shemoneh Esrei, shliach tzibbur, you're allowed to make chazaras hashatz if six didn't hear, six weren't yotzei yet, and four davened already, you're allowed to still have shliach tzibbur, yotzei tefillah b'tzibbur. What about Krias HaTorah? So be'emes, pashut you'd say it's the same. So the maiseh goes like this, that there was a Yid who was trying to put together a minyan for Krias HaTorah. So he came and he said that he's looking for ten, and the Brisker Rav was davening in the shul then, so he tells the Brisker Rav, tell me, you heard Krias HaTorah already? He said, I heard already. So he says, good, but you could still be mitztaref to the ten, because all we need is six that didn't hear. The Brisker Rav said, It's not true. Not true. Not true. You need ten people that did not hear Krias HaTorah to make Krias HaTorah. What happened? So the person came and he said, I'll show you that it's not so, and he took out a Ran, the Ran in the end of Megillah, where the Ran says clearly that these are the things that you're yotzei as long as you have six that didn't hear yet. And he lists tefillah b'tzibbur and Krias HaTorah. He came and he showed it to the Brisker, and he tells the Brisker Rav it's a mefurasher Ran. The Brisker Rav didn't even look. The Brisker Rav said, There's no such Ran. No such Ran. No such thing, no such Ran. So he says, what do you mean? But the Ran says it, and then he answers, there's no such Ran. He says, but he says it. He brings in the Brisker Rav, the Ran, and the Brisker Rav reads with him word for word the Ran. And the Brisker Rav says, you see this word over here? You're supposed to put a daled over there, which means that the word kriyas haTorah is not supposed to be read with the pesh sentence. It's supposed to read, the kriyas haTorah, even though it doesn't fit so well, but v'kriyas haTorah so-and-so, the next halacha. The guy was nishtoim. Yeah, yeah, you could read the Ran that way. You could read it; it's not muchrach. But he was even more nishtoim. How did the Brisker Rav remember the Ran, the words, the this? The Brisker Rav saw that this guy was getting all excited that the Brisker Rav knows every Ran. He says, Let me tell you something, I don't know every Ran. It's not true. Let me tell you, I don't know every Ran al peh. A lot of you said maybe would be able to say, I know every Ran al peh. I don't know every Ran al peh. Hey, I know, b'stam he probably, Brisker Rav probably knew Gemara Rashi, Tosafos, Rambam al peh, but to know every Ran? Nech taysh. He says, So how do you know there's no such Ran? He said, Because what I told you, halachos from the Chayei Adam. Chayei Adam paskens you need ten people that didn't hear kriyas haTorah, and it's lo yitachen, it's impossible that the Chayei Adam made a mistake, keneged a mefurasher Ran, if he was his zerais were miskabel b'Yisrael. If his pesakim were miskabel in Klal Yisrael, it can't be that he made a mistake in a mefurasher Ran. Can't be such a thing. That's how I right away knew there's no such Ran. There's no such Ran. Now you want to figure out what the answer is? So come, we'll sit down, we'll read the Ran, we'll figure out how to figure it out. The yesod was that it can't be that the chayahdim made a mistake. What do you see from over here, a big yesod? That there can't be a ta'us. Pashut pshat is, you learn like from the Ran, that even if it's a ta'us, that's not halacha; it doesn't make a difference. So the question is, what happens if it's a ta'us in halacha? But what happens if the ta'us is in halacha? I'm not talking about a ta'us in metzius. If it's a ta'us in metzius, you can come and say, af al pi kein, the metzius is lefi the chacham. For example, the Yerushalmi brings down in Kesubos that if, let's say, the chachamim me'aber a chodesh, me'aber a chodesh, so the metzius of the briah changes with that. For example, if a woman is a besulah, so we know besulah chozrim till three. Till three years old, the besulim come back. So what happens if they add an extra month? So when did it come back? Says the Gemara, the Yerushalmi in Kesubos, in the third perek, it comes back the extra month. Why? Because the metzius goes after the chacham. But what happens where the ta'us is in halacha? What do you see from over here? The Ran is mashma, for Reb Elazar's case, that the ta'us could be in halacha, af al pi kein. Here we have a bigger she'eilah: is it possible that they made a mistake on what they based their psak on? It's another she'eilah. Here what I'm asking, it's a different she'eilah.

Wait, wait. The question is, are we able to come and say that they made a mistake on the metzius? And the answer is, it doesn't make a difference. Even if they made a mistake on the metzius, the Rabbanan is mechadesh to me that that's the metzius. It doesn't make a difference. Vaiter we learn that what happens if they base their halacha on, l'mashal, a pshat in the Rambam, the Rambam is a mistake, meaning the pshat in the Rambam is a mistake. Could you have a thing like that? So from this Brisker Rav, you see that it can't be that. The Brisker Rav held that if the Chayei Adam paskens like this, it can't be that he paskened keneged the Rambam. Why not? The what? The Rambam, it wasn't learned that it's supposed to be; he made it that. So that's the question. The question is, if a person could pasken, and we're somech on his psak, that it can't be that he made a mistake. What's the negea? Negea to this shaila l'pruf. This is what I'm trying to... What is daas Torah? Is daas Torah the pshat like a nevuah, that he sees what we don't see? Or it's a certain siyata d'Shmaya that the chacham is given, that he has nehenin min haTorah etzel hasochya, that he has the capability to be kolea la'emes, given to him not from what he sees. Which means it's possible that it's not going to cheshbonos, but the way they want... Min haShamayim, the outcome, they give him to see. What exactly is the koach of haira? Is the koach of haira meaning like this: when Rashi says what he says, who says we can argue on Rashi? Maybe there's nothing to argue on Rashi. How can you argue on Rashi? If Rashi was written b'ruach hakodesh, how can you argue with Rashi? What's there to argue? Can the Rishonim argue with Rashi? Can you argue with Rashi? We can't argue with Rashi because we're anu kechamorim, but the Rishonim could argue with Rashi. Rabbanim doesn't argue with Rashi. Ay, it was written b'ruach hakodesh. And the teretz is that just because it's written b'ruach hakodesh doesn't mean that that's the reality, doesn't mean that that's what it is. So what does that mean? There's a mistake in what he saw? That's the question that I think is very intricate in das Torah. Are we to accept das Torah, that the chacham sees correctly, and therefore there isn't room for a mistake? Or even if the chacham didn't see correctly, even if what the chacham says, A, is really not A, but l'maaseh becomes A because he says it. And this is a very famous shaila in the pasuk: Afilu omer lecha al yamin shehu smol, v'al smol shehu yamin. What's the pshat in the pasuk? So you have to believe that you're making the mistake and the smol is taka smol and the yamin is yamin and you think is different? Or afilu omer lecha yamin is b'ta'us, they say it. If they come and say, Al smol shehu yamin... Because they said it, there's a certain koach that they have to establish that it's this way. What's it negea l'maaseh? I'll tell you how it's negea l'maaseh. Today, is it avodah zarah? Is it not avodah zarah? Are the bugs there, or are the bugs not there, right? Basically, basically, that's what I'm trying to bring out. What I'm trying to bring out is that could be our understanding of is it or isn't will not change the fact that a psak, a gadol b'Yisrael paskens. Oimrim l'chal yamin shehu yamin, v'al smol shehu smol. So mimeila that becomes the das Torah to follow. In other words, if let's say you prove, you prove differently, so then, in other words, you want to know if it is avodah zarah, and the answer is now it is, because the psak of the gadol was that it's avodah zarah, that it's assur. And I'll tell you where I got this from. I'll tell you why I'm saying this. I davened in a shul on Shavuos...

By Yin Kol Ravoz, his grandfather is the Shevet Levi. So I asked him, What's going on? And I figured he would probably know, you know, they probably, you know the ins and outs. So he told me over that rabbanim from America came to Rav Elyashiv and told him for an hour straight that it's not really a avodah zarah. And they were trying to explain to him it's not. Rav Elyashiv said, after an hour, One second, let's break it down. You're saying that the information is that it's not, and where's the information? It's the internet. The internet. Where do you get the information from? They went on the websites, and which is true, anybody goes on the websites, everybody comes back saying that it's not. She told me, went to look a little bit. Whoever went to look and came back, people who looked. Anybody I ever heard that said they went, it says it's all mashma that it's not. What? Wait a second. Listen to a chacham. Listen to a chacham. Listen to a story. So all the information, yeah? Tell me something. Why am I basing my psak that it is? Because I sent the, a rabbi, a rav, and he came back and told me that it is. He says, Where in the Torah does it say that the internet has a koach over 'ein adam'? That's what he wanted to know. He says, We're coming to Hilchos HaTorah. We want to know halacha l'maaseh, shteit in the Torah, 'ein adam' nema b'issur. The internet—it's a ma'aseh dekavar. It's a ma'aseh dekavar. The internet is telling me all the information. Vushtei that there's a din that money is tohiyah. Tell me, does it sound familiar? The Gemara in Bava Metzia says, Acheri rabim l'hatai. He says, I don't care what the metzius is. It's not negea. Totally irrelevant. It's totally irrelevant what the metzius is. If an eid echad came back and said so-and-so, then, you know, that's what he says he saw. He says he saw this. This is what he saw. The shaila is, once an eid echad said it, you can bring all the proofs. What? It's gonna be what? A big riot? I hold that this is the yesod of the whole dispute. Now listen carefully. He l'maaseh himself wrote a teshuva that it was mutar many years, fourteen years ago. In the Kovetz Teshuvos it's written that it's mutar. It's based on what a rofeh, a Yehudi, a Jewish professor told him. And he says, according to what he told me, I pasken like this. And I understood, and if you read it carefully, he writes that himself. There are contradictions to what this person says. He says it clearly. There's contradictions. So I don't know what's the truth, but l'maaseh he's telling me, and based on what he says, I have to follow. Which I understood is, he knows what he's saying then, eid echad ne'eman b'issur. Because someone can go and check. Because efshar levrurei. Yes. How do you want to levrurei? How do you want to do it? Exactly. Slowly, slowly. You mean really you should go to India? That's what you're saying. Why can't they? They didn't say. You're confusing the proof. By him the pshat is, I don't know. I don't know. I talked about this. Huh? Yeah, that's the question. Maybe in Israel it's like that. So let me ask you a question. Let me ask you a question. Eid echad ne'eman b'issurim is only for him. Eid echad ne'eman b'issurim is for you too. You know what the pella of this thing is? I saw the gaonus of how he paskened. It's a window into his mahalach, how much... He's telling, I'm not paskening. It has nothing to do with me. What do you want? I wasn't there. I don't know enough. He's telling you. He's telling you, as I said to eid echad, this is what he came back with. So what do you want? What do you want me to tell you? I believe if you read his lashon— No, but they wanted to correct that. What? He's not going to do that. He's not going to. They want, based on the fact that the internet said that it's not that one. The information is that it's not that one. There's nothing wrong, but it's not a koach in hora'ah. So he paskened that. He did. He sent somebody. What do you want to do? For what? He just did.

It's not the one. First of all, kama kashiminu, tahorei dacharei uk'shtayim, but yisurim, one is two. There's no two. But he did. He sent. He sent somebody. He checked. That eid echad was speaking without being there, and he was stiras into what he said, and here he sent an eid echad that was more barur. He went. He went and he said, and he saw. That's what it is. What do I say? No, but so, no. So two people, two translators, one Jewish and one... Can I have this? Give it that to... That's the pshat. What? I'll tell you what the l'maaseh. Listen to what the l'maaseh. My personal opinion about the whole thing, I'll tell you my personal. Till Shavuos, I was thinking that Reb Elyashiv might be a posek hadar. Might be. But that's a might be. That's not something which is clear. And if Rebelsky himself paskens that it's not a problem, Rebelsky paskens it's not a problem. But he went there, right? Rebelsky himself wrote three-page teshuvos. When they write the Reb Elyashiv... He came back and he says... That's really Yerushalmi. Yerushalmi has no monkey business. That doesn't make a difference. That's what... doesn't make a difference. He doesn't even care about... That's not... It could have been a mistake even fifteen years ago. He doesn't care. So missing all this, this is... Reb El Yashiv, it's the sugya of nun tes. Acher rabim l'hatos, finished. I don't care if it's—this is irrelevant. I sent an eid echad, and an eid echad came back. And according to the Torah's rules, eid echad is not... Even if metzius is different, right? Who? How could they pasken that? How could they... Rabbi Vozner, I saw from the way he told me that he didn't understand what was going on there, because he himself told me the internet—by him it was all about the internet. Reb Elyashiv said about the internet—Elyashiv is not a child—but he was upset. He meant to say is that the internet is not in the emunas of Torah. All the information you have on the internet is not in emunas of Torah. Acher rabim l'hatos, acher eid echad ne'eman b'issur. That's what it is. It's based on eid echad ne'eman b'issur. And that's his first teshuva also. His first teshuva was that the professor told him, and even though there was stiras in what he said, אבל למעשה I'm going after an eid echad. Now he sent somebody who is not talking just b'yediah, but he's talking that they saw it, and he's a rav, and he's a... he's a musmach, and... eid echad ne'eman b'issur. Once you learn, like the Ran, that das Torah is the taich, that he has a shi'ata d'shmaya to say, even if it's not right, he has a shi'ata d'shmaya, which means whatever he says happens. That's it. Whether or not you have rayas k'neged, whether or not he knows what he's talking about. See, that was—I was trying to tie all the ends. What are they going to say about Reb Elyashiv? He doesn't know. I don't think Reb Elchonon knew either about this. Is this still going? It's still going? Ah, vacht. Yeah. The first thing is you have to know Reb Eliyashiv might be the posek hador. And I don't, I think it's touchy. I don't want to get into it. I don't know Chassidim, Sefardish, I don't, I don't. L'maaseh, he might be the posek hador. That's the first thing I want to establish. Al posek hador that makes his jurisdiction over everybody. That's why you can't be mechalel America and Israel. That's the first step. I don't believe pashut. The only way I could hear is Rebelsky is the mara d'asra maybe more in America, maybe. I don't know. I don't know. It's hard to say Rebelsky is a man d'amar keneged Reb Eliyashiv. It's very hard to say. It's hard. We're talking about a complicated issue. Reb Dovid doesn't talk about these things. Reb Dovid is too above all this. This is irrelevant. In an intelligent way, this year was to open up your eyes to see the scope of the whole thing. I personally have a netiyah the opposite. It's mutar and it's nothing and it's shtus. That's my netiyah. I want you to understand the scope of the story. L'maaseh, Reb Eliyashiv is a posek hador or the posek hador. You can play with that. Shh. It's a touchy thing.

I don't know. Yeah, yes, no, da. Was he Rameisha? I don't think he's Rameisha, but I don't know. But listen, this is what it is. Wait. So the first thing is, is he the pasuk ha-dorei? The nafkamina is, like I said, l'choira his psak is jurisdictional over. It's not only Eretz Yisroel, it's not l'choira. Again, I'm showing you the steps of the problem. Maybe רבי יושע said, and that's it, finished, he paskened. First of all, you have to know there is such a thing today. רבי יושע paskened, so who says I can follow my rav, maybe? That's why I started with the Marik. That's the first thing I began with, the Marik. The Marik is a very yesodisdike Marik, that just because a gadol says doesn't mean I can't follow my rav. Doesn't mean that, okay? Next, and it's the gate to the Eiruv, it's the gate to everything, because Eiruv is the same story. Moshe said no, and if he says I have my rav, that's where it comes from. That's exactly where it comes from. Okay, next. Second question, second question, okay? Even if you'll say that he is the gadol, right? Let's say you know that he's mistaken. Let's say you know that he's wrong. I mean, you know the metzius is not that way. You know for sure the metzius is not that way. So then becomes a whole shaylah of what's das Torah. Das Torah could be even when he tells you something wrong. Even if he has no knowledge of the story. When I say wrong, what does he wrong? Because he has no knowledge of it. How is he supposed to know, right? That's the question. How is he supposed to know? And you know the answer doesn't really make a difference. I mean, that's the yesod of it. Now, another nekudah you can come and say, let's try to bring raayos that it's not that way. So then he's taining the meori de-kvar, he's taining the tesa, he's taining the Gemara to the tes, b'metzius that the raayos are irrelevant. Even Shamayim would come and tell you that it's not that way. This is what he was trying—tell me, the Ramban doesn't say in Reb Eliezer that Reb Eliezer was 100%, right? The Ramban is saying he was 100%, right? The Ramban's not saying, Torah lo bashamayim, you can't trust what he said. Even if he's right, even if Reb Eliezer's right, lemaaseh, acharei rabim lhatos. ... eid echad ne'eman b'issurim. It's the same way. Now, the only other cheshbon you can have is maybe that's only when it's a shaylah in the metzius. Could be it's based on a ta'us in halachah, which is not nigeia in that case. But here's an interesting Brisker Rav, that it can't be that a me'orera makes a mistake. So I use this to tell you that if a me'orera put out an open psak, it's very difficult to come and say that he made a mistake, especially thousands and thousands of people burnt their sheitelach and gave up their money and say that he made a mistake. I mean, there's certain ... that a me'orera has, like the Brisker Rav said about the chayad, that it can't be that he made a mistake. It can't be. That's the sugya. And I'm telling you that I was leaning towards understanding it this way anyway. Once I heard the story of the internet, then I understood it. The ultra right-wingers make it, Yeah, the internet. Really, the American rabbanim quote the internet. You're missing the point. That's not what he meant. He didn't mean anti-internet. That's not what he meant. He meant to say it's not a ne'emanus. Internet is not a ne'emanus. So who wrote it? What's the ne'emanus? Once the Torah has eid echad ne'eman b'issurim, and he said that eid echad ne'eman b'issurim. Now the only problem is they're coming and they're trying to mevatel the eid echad ne'eman b'issurim. They hold that he's not an eid echad. So there's two ways how to do it. There's one way to do it, says he didn't understand what he saw. That could be. That could be very well. That's the only thing that gnaws through my mind. Maybe he saw, but he doesn't understand what he saw. He saw the process, but the process doesn't mean what he understood he saw. He doesn't necessarily understand what he saw. The other way to do it is say you can't trust anything he says. Then you also have that problem of eid echad ne'eman b'issur. There's no such thing as eid echad ne'eman b'issur. It means he's a funny type of guy, you know, he's a guy, yeah, eid echad ne'eman b'issur is that way. It's not is or isn't. The problem is, how do you get around eid echad ne'eman b'issur? Now you can talk. It's chazak issur, not it's chazak issur. I don't know, it's just a nice sugya of eid echad. Work on it. It could be, especially if it's to eidim, what?

The name of hayechil Hashem. The etzem hadavar muskal. Very chiddush. Wrong here. Yeah, he says like this: he wasn't wrong. Moshe Rabbeinu never did anything on his own, because a navi, you're always able to tell that it was from Hashem. If it was a navi, you saw that he had his nevuah; he turned into a navi. He was being mispashet. Masha'ein kein Moshe Rabbeinu, the opposite. Moshe Rabbeinu looked like everything was on his own. The only time he did on his own was he got angry at Korach. So he says, therefore, when it came to the story of Mei Merivah, az kasha lo hayah mayim l'eidah, ma amru divrei nargan al kvodei chash, al shem mayim l'eidah lo yachush. So he cares about his own kavod, Korach, and he doesn't care about that there's no water. Oz b'eder asiyas atzmo melach shteivaso v'ligzor, omer lasela tein meimecha, hayechil Hashem. So by him not hitting the rock and making sure that it gives water would have been a chilul Hashem. So he had to do it even though Hashem didn't say. That if the tzibur would get the wrong impression and it would be a chilul Hashem, then the das Torah, which means that he says what the Ribbono Shel Olam wants, has to be taken into account that maybe it's not כדאי to do it. So what was the chet? Moshe Rabbeinu sinned by Mei Merivah. So he brings from the Alboi, shelo kidesh Moshe shmoi. Ki kaasher rah kol haam tzamei mayim, haya raui l'ish kazeh l'kadesh shmo v'laasos atzmo loitzi, he should have taken out the water himself. Kashes Moshe didn't do anything on his own. What do you mean? David HaMelech told him, he did it. And the Teretz is, since it would have been a chilul Hashem here, because they would have said, Oh, Korach, he got angry for water you don't take for the people, so he should have not asked the Ribbono Shel Olam and on his own done this. Everything is das Torah; everything is not kasher. You can't just make up your own sevaros and do it. You see from over here that if the people will misunderstand, you sometimes have to do not what the Ribbono Shel Olam told you to do. On your own, you should take the initiative if people don't understand. Or it not to be a chilul Hashem, because it's a big, big...