Question

Dear Rabbi Michi, hello,
With considerable delay I’m writing to you following Rabbi Youngster’s critique and your response to it. Let me preface this by saying: I haven’t seen Maimonides inside, nor what you wrote. This is hearsay only.
 
It is possible that Maimonides also holds that regarding facts there is no formal authority. Accordingly, deep down he holds like Rabbi Yosei that a person is judged every day, from which it follows that Rosh Hashanah (according to Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehuda) is not really the Day of Judgment, and therefore one should not expect unusual mortality on those days. I think that the Sages also thought this way, but it was clear to them that a person cannot live all his days under the required tension, and therefore it was convenient for them to define a limited period of time, like Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehuda, for the purpose of soul-searching. Otherwise, the decision about the factual question of when the Holy One, blessed be He, sits in judgment is certainly puzzling, and it is not clear (at least to me) on what basis such a thing could be determined, outside the framework of “the righteous decrees and the Holy One, blessed be He, fulfills.”
 
Although the main point is missing from the book, this seems to me a reasonable solution to Maimonides’ most difficult words, according to Rabbi Youngster.
 
As for prayer, and in the same context, years ago I gave a lecture in our community and in a neighboring one, and I showed that prayer is ineffective. They almost stoned me, even though I also brought before them the following Tosafot:
 
Tosafot, tractate Shabbat 12b
Rabbi Yehuda says, “May the Omnipresent have mercy on you,” etc. Rabbeinu Tam found this difficult: What benefit is there in prayer according to Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehuda, who say in the first chapter of Rosh Hashanah (16a, and there) that all are judged on Rosh Hashanah and their verdict is sealed on Yom Kippur—these are the words of Rabbi Meir. Rabbi Yehuda says: all are judged on Rosh Hashanah, but the verdict of each individual is sealed at its proper time: on Passover for grain, and for a person on Yom Kippur. Rabbi Yosei says: a person is judged every day. And it says there: Rav Yosef said, “In accordance with whom do we pray nowadays for the sick and the ill? In accordance with Rabbi Yosei.” It implies that according to Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehuda, prayer is not effective. And one may say that here it is speaking about the Sabbath between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. And according to what it answers there, “If you wish, say it is in accordance with Rabbi Yitzhak, for Rabbi Yitzhak said: crying out is beneficial for a person both before the verdict and after the verdict,” then this passage here works out well.
 
I wonder what Rabbeinu Tam thought—whether prayer is ineffective (except during the Ten Days of Repentance), or as I understand Maimonides (in which case I’ve lost my supporting tanna).
 
Since I’m not all that well-versed in your writings (especially since you write so much), it’s possible you already made use of this Tosafot.
Health and all the best