[Avodah] R Tzadok-TSBP

[Michael Makovi]

Somehow, I turned a discussion Rabbi Tzadok into a discussion of
post-modernism. I will now bring the discussion full circle:

Something similar to this post-modernism would be apparent from the
philosophy of Rabbi Tzadok haKohen of Lublin. In "R. Zadok Hakohen on
the History of Halakha" (Tradition 21:4, Fall 1985), Professor Yaakov
Elman describes how according to Rabbi Tzadok, the Oral Law is such
that although Moshe received the whole Torah at Sinai, it was all in
potentia (b'koah), and only later did Rabbi Akiva (based on Menahot
29b) bring it out into actuality (b'po'al). Elman then writes,

(Quote) The process [of bringing that which was inchoate (b'koah) out
into actuality (b'po'al)] did not end here [with the writing of the
Talmud]. Each successive effort of codification of Oral Law added to
the Written Torah, and each code, as it became part of Written Torah,
generated still more layers of innovation in Oral Torah. In practical
terms, each portion of Oral Torah as it was reduced to writing
generated new commentaries whose authors approached the newly
incorporated work as the sages of Oral Torah had approached the
original Written Torah. Thus, if we may be permitted to draw out the
line ofreasoning a step further, the Amoraim applied to Mishnah
methods similar to their creative reinterpretation (derasha) of
Written Torah, the Rishonim continued the process on Talmud as a
whole, and the Aharonim used the works of the Rishonim as a point of
departure and treated them the same way. And the process continues
apace. Progressive revelation continues through the medium of sage and
text.
(End Quote)

In other words, just as Rabbi Akiva brought the Oral Law into
actuality from its being potential in the Written Law, so too the
Amoraim did to the Mishnah, the Rishonim to the Amoraim, and the
Aharonim to the Rishonim. Each generation brings potentiality to
acutality, koah to po'al. Some sort of post-modernism is clearly
demanded.

Michael Makovi