[Avodah] Passing Judgement on Gedolim knowledge

Micha Berger micha at aishdas.org
Mon Aug 20 09:18:59 PDT 2018


On Sun, Aug 19, 2018 at 07:25:08PM EDT, R Akiva Miller wrote on Areivim:
:>> From http://www.2020vision.co.il/newsletter/the-face-of-the-generation

:>>    When the Son of David will come the face of the generation will be like
:>>   the face of a dog (Sanhedrin 97a). Rabbi Yisroel Salanter ztl explains
:>>   this to mean, the behavior of the leaders of the generation will resemble
:>>   that of dogs. When a dog is walked by its master, it trots ahead and thus
:>>   appears to be leading. In reality, however, it is the master who chooses
:>>   the direction in which to go. When the dog comes to a fork in the road,
:>>   it stops and waits for its master to direct it. In the pre-Messianic
:>>   era, the leaders will only appear to be leading the nation. In reality
:>>   they will be following the whims of the masses (Artscroll quoting Rabbi
:>>   Elchonen Wasserman).

: I asked:
:> Is anyone aware of the source of this quote from Rav Salanter
:> or Rav Wasserman?

: R' Moshe Gluck responded:
:> It's in Ikvesa D'mshicha - you can find it online at
:> http://www.daat.ac.il/daat/ezrachut/tsiyonut/ikveta.pdf
:> and the relevant quote is on page 29.

: Thank you!

: For the benefit of anyone looking it up, I would point out that RMG is
: referring us to page 29 of the *sefer*, which you'll find by telling
: that website that you want page *27*. The relevant section is the
: bottom half of the page. I also see (on the copyright page, which is
: page 2 of the file) that this is not Rav Wasserman's original words,
: but it was translated into Hebrew from Yiddish.

: It seems to me that this Hebrew version (and the original Yiddish,
: perhaps) does not have any word that might correspond to "gedolim" or
: "poskim" or even "leaders", as the phrase "Pnei Hador" is used in
: quotation marks, without any interpretation of what the gemara meant
: by it.

If you go back to the mishnah from where this quote is taken (Sotah 9:15,
ie 49b) the context of family; the mishnah despitcs a lack of kibu av
va'eim, a person's enemies will be the people of his home. The next
words are "habein eino misbayeish lifnei av".

The gemara that discusses the idiom, Sanhedrin 97a, has R' Yehudah
quoting a different beraisa. The tone is more communal:
    beis havaad yihyeh liznus
    the Galil will be destroyed, the Gavlanwill be annihilated,
    the people on the border will circulate from city to city, and
    they won't have compassion on them,
    the wisdom of the Sofrim will diminish,
    yir'ei cheit will be loathed,
    ufnei hador kifnei hakelev.

Later, R' Nehorai proved something more like the mishnah in Sotah's
context, continuing "ve'ein havein mispayeish mei'aviv."

Rashi gives two peshatim (on R' Yehusvah):
1- Mamash
2- There will be no bushah.

#1 requires its own peirus.
#2 simply fits the mishnah

The Maharshah says that a kelev is "ke-leiv", it doesn't pretened to be loyal,
its actions reflect its heard. Unlike the generation of the ge'ulah, who
act loyal, but their hearts aren't there.

I don't know how the Maharsha explains the quote as a contrast, rather than
stating a similarity.

The Eitz Yoseif defines "penei hador" to be its wealthy people, based on
Rashi on Bereishis 41:56. And they will be as lowly as dogs because they
will be ungenerous.

The Chida (Pesach Einayim) says that the dog is poor (see Shabbos 155b,
which describes dogs as poortest) and insolent (Beitza 25b). And thus
the generation of the ge'ulah is described as being both deserving of
shame and yet shameless.

: It is also worth noting that this page has only Rav Yisroel Salanter's
: understanding of that gemara. In the very next paragraph, Rav
: Wasserman tells us how the Chofetz Chayim understood it.

RYS says that a dog runs ahead of the owner, but doesn't actually lead. The
dog turns to watch where the owner is going. Similarly, the leader of the
generation. (RMMS quotes this peshat besheim RYS; possibly a major factor
toward its popularity in derashos.)

The CC says something that could be understood two ways.

1- When a dog is hit with a stick, it attacks the stick, not the one
wielding it. And similarly the last generation, when attacked, takes it
out on the attacker and never thinks that they must also do teshuvah.

2- Dogs play with sticks. Unlike a person, who would use it for
disciplining the dog. (A different understanding of the dog going after
the stick.) Which makes RYS's intent to be more about assimilation than
misunderstanding yisurim.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             It is harder to eat the day before Yom Kippur
micha at aishdas.org        with the proper intent than to fast on Yom
http://www.aishdas.org   Kippur with that intent.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                       - Rav Yisrael Salanter


More information about the Avodah mailing list