[Avodah] Daas Torah

[Daniel Eidensohn]

R' Richard Wolpoe wrote:
> Agreed. And contrary to the "politically Correct" idea taht only  
> "tzaddikim" get  siyyata dishmaya, I have  seen some pretty mediocre 
> people and  several vanilla Gentiles get incredible siyyata dishmaya.

page 123 in my sefer Daas Torah in section* *"Torah and Prophesy is 
Basis of all Knowledge"

*Chasam Sofer(Orech Chaim 1:208): *And this that you have written a 
number of times concerning the issue of wisdom and prophecy and Azniel 
ben Kenaz who restored the lost Halacha by pilpul… You correctly explain 
that which the Raavad said that there was ruach hakodesh in his beis 
hamedrash and similar such expressions does not mean ruach hakodesh in 
the sense that Dovid HaMelech had. Rather it means the spirit of G‑d for 
those who engage in Torah for pure motivations who merit to ascertain 
the truth* *even if according to the nature of their wisdom and 
intelligence they should be incapable of comprehending it properly. 
Nevertheless, G‑d in His mercy gives extra inspiration of wisdom for a 
limited time. In this manner Azniel ben Kenaz merited to ascertain the 
truth through pilpul, kal v’chomer and gezera shaveh [Temurah 16a] that 
which his natural intelligence was incapable of doing. This is similar 
to what it says in Bava Basra 12a that /even though prophecy was taken 
from the prophets but not from the sages. /However, your understanding 
of this gemora to be that wisdom was not taken from the sages is 
incorrect. Rather it is that prophecy was not taken from the sages. In 
other words, that type of prophecy which is attainable through the 
wisdom of one who studies Torah for pure motivation merits many things 
[Avos 6:1] with his intellect and his wisdom even though he doesn’t have 
the natural ability for it. The gemora wants to prove this from the 
common fact that a talmid chachom comprehends something on his own which 
in fact is according to the understanding of Rabbi Akiva. We know that 
this person’s level is not up to Rabbi Akiva’s heels. This proves that 
it happened by the prophetic ability we mentioned. In addition, we also 
find that he says things which in fact are Halacha L’Moshe m’Sinai. The 
gemora rejects this proof by saying that perhaps this occurs by chance 
like a blind person groping through a window. However, the gemora 
concludes that it is not by chance since he gives justifications for his 
views and thus it is like a prophetic form of wisdom. This idea can 
explain the gemora in Megila (16a): “/Whoever says wisdom even if he not 
Jewish is called a wise man.” /The obvious question is why shouldn’t he 
be called a wise man? Don’t we in fact even say a beracha on the wise 
men of the non‑Jews “who gives of His wisdom to human beings” (Berachos 
58a)? The answer is that without this gemora we would have mistakenly 
thought that Divinely inspired wisdom only comes to Jews while if a 
non‑Jew said something brilliant that seems to transcend his 
intellectual capabilities we would have thought it was just blind chance….