Q&A: Haredi Worldview
Haredi Worldview
Question
Hello, honorable Rabbi,
I would be glad to know what the source is for “Da’at Torah” and whether one should ask rabbis even about matters that are not specifically in the books, such as education or health. For example, we find important rabbis who answered and spoke about issues that are not specifically matters of Jewish law, but of a way of life.
For example, the Haredim claim that one should ask a rabbi and follow what he says in all matters. Do all agree with this? I understood that part of Modern Orthodoxy does not think so. I would be glad to hear your view.
Thank you very much
Answer
There is no clear source for this. There are aggadic sayings that can be interpreted that way. But even if there is such a source, it has no real substance.
By the way, Binyamin Brown wrote several articles on the subject of Da’at Torah, and he shows that even among Haredi rabbis and thinkers it does not appear in contexts unrelated to Jewish law and Torah leadership (but rather in everyday matters).
Discussion on Answer
https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%A7%D7%98%D7%92%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%94:%D7%9E%D7%9C%D7%9B%D7%99%D7%9D_%D7%90_%D7%95_%D7%93
And examine it carefully.
Thank you very much. From your article about Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky and the coronavirus, I understand that you oppose this whole idea—that people treat a Haredi rabbi as an authority on everything that does not concern matters explicitly addressed in the Torah, since they do not understand worldly matters enough to deal with them, and apparently, as you wrote, there is no source for this.
I just wanted to make sure I understood correctly, and that this was not said only regarding the coronavirus, which is of course more severe when it affects the public at large.