Q&A: Rabbeinu Chaim HaLevi’s Novellae
Rabbeinu Chaim HaLevi’s Novellae
Question
Hello and blessings!
There are analytical Torah books that can be studied in a broad, survey-style way even without being deeply immersed in the underlying Talmudic passage they deal with, and you can still grasp their straightforward meaning.
That was my experience when learning Sha’agat Aryeh, Shev Shema’tata, Atvan DeOraita, etc.
In your opinion, can Rabbeinu Chaim HaLevi’s Novellae also be included in this category, or not?
Answer
Even more so than those books.
Discussion on Answer
In principle, it’s possible. You can understand from the context. Of course, if you go into each passage, the learning will be deeper and more effective, but there is also great value in covering more material without going into the details of every proof. You can certainly understand the principles.
I don’t know who the questioner is, but to learn Sha’agat Aryeh, Shev Shema’tata, Atvan DeOraita, or Rabbeinu Chaim’s Novellae without being immersed in the passage itself—that’s almost impossible, isn’t it? How can one understand their proofs, or their novel ideas, if we don’t know the simple plain meaning of the passage??
It seems to me that books you really can study without being immersed in the passage are, for example, Rabbi Amiel’s books, or Rabbi Reines’s books—especially Orim Gedolim, which is almost entirely pure conceptual analysis with hardly any sources.
Isn’t that so, Rabbi?