[Avodah] Who is a Talmid Chacham

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Jul 06, 2012 at 10:07:34AM -0400, Micha Berger wrote:
: > 1. Maybe he wasn't a talmid chacham then
: 
: Even in Shemuel II 8:1, where he was melekh already? He already wrote
: numerous kapitelach Tehillim by this point. (LeDavid beshanoso es ta'amo
: was written when on the lam from Shaul, no?)

See Rashi on Pinechas 27:17 (tr R' David Sedley
<http://rabbisedley.blogspot.com/2012/07/another-reason-to-love-israel.html>
without whom I wouldn't have noticed):
    Who will go forth before them: Not like the kings of the [gentile]
    nations, who sit at home and send their armies to war, but as I
    [Moshe] did, for I fought against Sihon and Og, as it says,
    "Do not fear him" (21:34), and as Joshua did, as it says,
    "Joshua went to him and said to him, Are you for us [or for our
    enemies]?" (Josh. 5:13). Similarly, concerning David it says, "For
    he went forth and came in before them" (I Sam. 18:16)-he went out [to
    battle] at their head and came in before them. -- [Sifrei Pinchas 23]

Someone else raised issues in private email that I wished they would have
repeated on list. Now that RDS's blog post had me revisiting the topic,
I will.

First, if David haMelekh wasn't a TC yet at the time he was still
fighting was himself, lo kol shekein anyone alive today. And if he was
able to go to war and THEN become the head of the Sanhedrin and a navi,
then doesn't that indicate something? Alternatively, he was a TC when
he went to war. Either way, it doesn't support the chareidi.

Second, how is it suddenly accepted chareidi thought that the shofetim
were /not/ gedolei Torah? R' Shach clearly thought otherwise when he
objected (to put it mildly) to R' Edin Shteinzaltz playing down the TC
aspect of Shimshon?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "I think, therefore I am." - Renne Descartes
micha at aishdas.org        "I am thought about, therefore I am -
http://www.aishdas.org   my existence depends upon the thought of a
Fax: (270) 514-1507      Supreme Being Who thinks me." - R' SR Hirsch