Q&A: On Interpretation
On Interpretation
Question
I have a question for you, Rabbi.
I once listened to your lecture on the topic, “Does halakhic ruling strive for truth?”
and in the course of it you also explained the Talmudic statement, “These and those are the words of the living God, but the Jewish law follows the House of Hillel,”
and you distinguished between the pluralistic approach and the approach of tolerance, and so on.
And I am trying to understand: do you presume to interpret every passage in the Talmud and in the words of the Sages according to your own reasoning or according to philosophical approaches?
But how do you know that you have in your head all the data and information needed in order to interpret a passage of this kind?
After all, there are many mysterious sayings of the Sages that are difficult to explain with our reason, or we see that reality does not always fit with all the sayings of the Sages, and therefore
we have to admit that it is impossible to understand the entire Torah and all the sayings of the Sages with our own reason,
which is very limited and cannot grasp heavenly and spiritual matters.
With that approach, this is how I relate to all sayings of the Sages that are hard to understand (for example, the idea that in the future we will understand that the House of Shammai and the House of Hillel were both right).
Do you think differently?
And if so, why?
With all due respect
Answer
I interpret everything I know according to the best of my understanding. It is always possible that I am mistaken, but I have no other tool. As a rule, I do not assume that in the midrashim of the Sages there are things that cannot be reached through reasonable interpretation, and it seems to me that everyone assumes this. Every student interprets the Talmud according to his understanding, since that is the tool we have, and apparently those were also the tools the Sages themselves had.