ר"ע תיתד תונויצל ינויערה גוחה ,םולשו זוע
I never desired to find a “solution” for the issue of the Sages’ disputes, which are all for the sake of Heaven, and about which is said, “All of their words are the words of the living G-d.” Indeed, only by virtue of the Sages’ Torah argumentation is the Torah “glorified and amplified.” As the Jerusalem Talmud teaches (Sanhedrin 4,2), “If the Torah had been given at Sinai fixed and immutable, the world would not be able to exist [because the Torah must be expounded in all of its various ways],” as I have explained in the introduction to my work “Mosdot Torah She-b’al Peh (Jerusalem 1889).”
The Torah was not given in a cut-and-dried manner, and each and every Beit Din (Rabbinical court) is permitted to rule on the issues of the day, according to the majority of its members. One who instructs contrary to the decision of the Beit Din sitting in the Holy Temple is considered a Zaken Mamreh (Rebellious Elder). But if in the next generation, or even in the same generation, a majority develops against the ruling, then the ruling is changed according to the new majority. This is the way of Torah, and its very basis; whoever does not understand and recognize this, does not understand Torah.
That which His Torah Honor [Rabbi Yekutiel Aryeh Kamelohr, the addressee of this correspondence] would like to cure our world of all Torah disputes - this is not my intention, nor my way. In my opinion, a Torah dispute is itself Torah, and does not need to be cured: “The Torah of Hashem is perfect, restoring the soul... the judgments of Hashem are true, altogether righteous (Psalms 19)” - this includes all of the opinions that are rooted in straight thinking and are for the sake of Heaven and for the pursuit of truth.
And that which His Torah Honor would like to
determine the practical Halakhic law according to a count of the
majority of Torah opinions in our generation - this is not at all the
meaning of the Torah dictum, “You shall incline after a majority
(Ex. 23,2).” This rather refers to a majority of Torah scholars that
are gathered together in one place to decide on an issue, and not a
majority of opinions that are published in writings. I have elaborated
on this in my work Malki Bakodesh IV, responsum 13. The collecting and
sorting of Halakhic opinions was a project that was started by the
Beit Yosef [author of the Shulkhan Arukh], and despite all of his
greatness in Torah, the Maharshal and the Rama did not agree with his
conclusions, nor did all the great Ashkenazic Torah scholars. The
situation is the same today: there is no one Torah giant, raised above
the nation, to whom all of Israel will adhere. Possibly once we
succeed in restoring the institution of semichah to Eretz Yisrael,
then we will be able to act in this way; but not now, when there are
too many separate groups, which destroy any hope that such a thing can
be done.
From a letter to Rabbi Yekutiel Aryeh Kamelohr 11 Nisan
5685 [1925]
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