Q&A: Greeting One’s Rabbi on a Festival
Greeting One’s Rabbi on a Festival
Question
In the Babylonian Talmud, Rosh Hashanah (16b), it says: Rabbi Yitzhak said: A person is obligated to greet his rabbi on a festival, as it is stated, “Why are you going to him today? It is neither the New Moon nor the Sabbath.” From this it follows that on the New Moon and on the Sabbath she should indeed have gone.
And my question is: perhaps we should say that in fact there is no such commandment (from the Prophets/Writings), and that this verse merely seems to show that such a custom existed. And nothing more??
Answer
It somewhat reminds me of the derivation of a woman’s head covering from the verse, “and he shall uncover the woman’s head.” These kinds of derivations are apparently based on the reasoning of the Sages, which is then attached to a verse. And perhaps because of that reasoning, they understood that this really is the verse’s intent—that it is a law and not merely a custom.
Discussion on Answer
I didn’t assume here that they were right. I explained how, in my opinion, they arrived at this interpretation.
Ah, sorry. According to this, just as with Jewish laws that rest on mistaken facts (killing a louse on the Sabbath, for example)—where we do not follow the ruling of the Sages—so too with Jewish laws that rest on mistaken interpretations (in a way where it is clear that this is not just an asmachta, but really their derivation): should we not listen to the ruling of the Sages?
Aharon,
Facts—you can determine that they are mistaken. On what basis can you determine that an interpretation is mistaken, other than the fact that the conclusion goes against your own reasoning?
If the mistake is obvious, then yes. But that is really not the case here. You have no scientific or other knowledge that they didn’t have, and they saw this as a reasonable interpretation. Moreover, the interpretation you suggest—that this was an accepted practice and not Jewish law—is one of two possibilities. On what basis did you decide that it is the preferable option? And I certainly did not understand how you decided that their interpretation is obviously mistaken (and not just less plausible).
Why assume that the Sages were always right and didn’t make mistakes in understanding the verses?