Q&A: Types of Wisdom
Types of Wisdom
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Some time ago, the Rabbi wrote a column about Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef in which he sharply attacked him (apparently justifiably) over his conduct and manner of speaking. The Rabbi came to the conclusion that Rabbi Yosef is, to put it mildly, not a particularly wise person, based on things Rabbi Yosef said, did, etc. After reading that article, I found myself facing a dilemma. On the one hand, my impression of Rabbi Yosef until now was that he is a great Torah scholar, and the evidence as well (writing many books of Jewish law, being appointed Chief Rabbi, etc.) showed that this is a person with extensive learning. On the other hand, when you see the way he speaks about Black people, and more generally in many situations Rabbi Yosef has gone through recently (for example, only lately he supported the Shas party, even though morally and legally, as Chief Rabbi, he is forbidden to support it), he does not seem to behave like a rational person. The difficulty is that it seems like we are dealing with two different people: in reading his books of Jewish law, one encounters a genius and a person of immense knowledge, but in current issues one meets a person who seems shallow.
As I write this, I remember that the Rabbi said that when he was studying in the kollel in Bnei Brak, the Haredi avrekhim studied Talmud with great sharpness, but in matters of faith and thought they were very shallow. The claim I am getting at is that there are several kinds of wisdom. There is the wisdom of memory and analysis of knowledge (which without a doubt cannot be taken away from Rabbi Yosef), and there is a kind of philosophical wisdom, and one could argue that he does not have that.
I would be glad to know what the Rabbi thinks.
Answer
I would prefer not to go further than I already have into discussing the person himself. I will only say that I disagree with you regarding his Talmudic-halakhic genius as well.
Discussion on Answer
On the fundamental level (without any connection to the personal discussion), certainly yes. The Sages already speak about a "Sinai" and an "uprooter of mountains," and Rabbi Akiva is sent from aggadic literature to the tractates Negaim and Ohalot, but of course you don’t need them in order to know this.
The main question is whether one really can point to several kinds of wisdom. Like, for example, the story told about the Ari, that he said to Rabbi Yosef Karo that he was not suited to the study of Kabbalah. And in general, there are people with an impressive ability to analyze knowledge but with no intellectual creativity at all..