[Avodah] ancient minhagim

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Feb 04, 2009 at 08:13:07PM +0200, Eli Turkel wrote:
:> Did Tosafos think they were reinterpreting, or using other data to
:> understand how it was always understood, thus explaining how the
:> practice was allowed to persist.

: I assume that tosefot thought this was the perush in the gemara

I am inclined that way as well.

: I recently read an interesting article about shitat Brisk. Among other
: things the author states that R. Chaim insisted that he was just clarifying
: what the rishonim and gemara was saying and not really introducing
: anything new

A scientific theory can be inherent in the data collected. That doesn't
mean the person collecting the data realized it.

I wonder whether RCB would say that the Rambam would recognize his
lomdus, or whether he would say that the Rambam would necessarily accept
his lomdus as a necessary implication (that he didn't necessarily draw
himself).

The impression I get from the Yad, primed by tertiary sources referring
to the Rambam's "ledaati", is that the Rambam didn't formalize the rules
that unite his pesaqim. Rather he operated on the level of feel, of just
knowing the consistent picture without trying to articulate it. (Odd,
for someone who enjoyed Aristo as much as he did, but consistent with
the lack of any overarching rules spelled out in his sefarim. He spells
out organizational principles and his proof of the first several ikkarim
(in the begining of Moreh cheileq II). But anything like lomdus?

If the Rambam thought of formalizing such theories, wouldn't they have
made it into writing?

OTOH, I think the Rambam would agree with most applications of gavra vs
cheftza, if he heard RCB present it. The reduction of the Rambam's art
to a science.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             The waste of time is the most extravagant
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