<br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 10/7/07, <b class="gmail_sendername"><a href="mailto:regalkit@aol.com">regalkit@aol.com</a></b> <<a href="mailto:regalkit@aol.com">regalkit@aol.com</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<br><div>The sefer, in my humble opinion, is full of these misrepresentations;
can someone guide me as to how I can understand a Godol Hador's writings?</div>
<div>Thank You.</div>
Binyomin Hirsch<span> <br>
</span><div>
<hr style="margin-top: 10px;"></div></blockquote><div><br>Having never read the sefer I cannot comment on the specifics...<br>Let me quote these principles on the general question:<br><br><blockquote style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;" class="gmail_quote">
<ul><li>"As soon as passionate advocacy enters, reasonable judgment and fair-minded balance exits" </li><li>"One can be eithher an advocate for a position, or be a dispassionate objective observer but it is well-nigh impossible to serve both causes justly."
</li><li>"Hevu masunim bedin"</li><li>and al Tadin Yehcidi, etc.</li></ul></blockquote><br>Maybe the best check for any published work is constant peer review and to never accept the position of a "gadol" by his own authority alone.
<br><br>Example: The Rambam was a Gadol but he stated many controversial positions. AFAIK only Teimanim accept his positions wholesale, Certainly R. Yosef Karo did not.<br></div></div><br clear="all">The beauty of the Beis Yosef and the Rema is that generally they surveyed a wide-consensus of "gedolim" and rarely relied upon a single idiosyncratic view. I endorse that methodology wholeheartedly. In that sense I would satate re: myself that I am accepting of Gedolim in general and a skeptic re: any specific Gadol 's pronouncements.
<br><br>-- <br>Kol Tuv / Best Regards,<br><a href="mailto:RabbiRichWolpoe@Gmail.com">RabbiRichWolpoe@Gmail.com</a><br>Please Visit: <br><a href="http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/">http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/</a>