A special highlight for my father (Rabbi Yisrael Rubin) & myself this 5785/2025 Chaf-Av Summer Yarchei Kallah in Tannersville (where my father spoke as well) was to meet & hear Rav Hershel Schachter, the Rosh Yeshiva of YU. Before getting to a specific point Rav Schachter (Rosh Yeshiva of YU, posek etc) shared, some personal impressions: Immense scholarship aside, he’s simply an incredibly pleasant, refined, humble person, eminently mentchlich. No airs, no pretensions, almost like a sweet grandfather.
Rav Schacter spoke that night on the concept of “Eilu vEilu Divrei Elokim Chayim” (both opinions are the words of the Living G-d).
This concept of mutual respect & validation (first learned from Schools of Bais Shammai & (especially) Bais Hillel) was fitting for the evening as the speaker dais for this event in memory of the Rebbe’s father ranged from YU to Yeshivish, Bostoner Chassidus & Chabad.
In his remarks at this Chaf-Av Yarchei Kallah Sat Night event in Tannersville, Rav Schachter quoted a Ritvah, a 13th century scholar and Talmudic commentator from Seville, named Rabbi YomTov Ben Avraham, or by the acrostic Ritvah for short.
Rav Schachter quoted this Ritvah commentary on Talmud Eruvin page 13: When Moshe was in heaven, G-d showed him 3 “piles” of concepts: That which is 100% Kosher/Permissible, that which is 100% Treif/Forbidden etc & a pile with concepts that are a mix of both elements of Kosher/Treif, and it would be up to the rabbis of each generation (in some ways each community) to determine whether was the Kosher or Trief / Permissible vs. Forbidden elements in that mix which would be dominant. This is what the Ritvah quotes from French Rabbis.
Before getting to the last line of the Ritvah, which I didn’t see in the text until the next night, I was thinking of how rich this idea is in the lens of this week’s opening line of Parsha #Reeh: “See I place before you a blessing & a curse.” G-d gives us that mixed bag & you might say that we get to determine how we see it. Life is full of ups & downs, positives & negatives, pros & cons, light & dark, but we get to choose how we view it, what aspects we consider dominant & determining. (Perhaps in a way akin to #AlterRebbe’s Kelipas Nogah).
This might be a twist on the phrase: “What you see is what you get!” It can be a challenge to see the positives in a mixed bag, it can be hard to extract from the ore, to highlight the good, to make that the focus.
This also helps us appreciate how Rebbe often quoted the opening verse of #Reeh: “See I have placed before you – a blessing!” (without any mention of the next word “and a curse”). The Rebbe saw the mixed bag, and saw blessing.
Interesting to see this in light of this Ritvah commentary on Talmud Eruvin page 13.
Now, as Rav Herschel Schacter spoke, sharing classic perspectives on this concept of “Eilu v’Eilu” I was thinking of the deeper more mystical element the Rebbe brings to this issue, especially in the later years, my Yeshiva years.
The next day I attended an alumni engagement party (BH for Simchas!) and afterwards went to Mincha/Maariv at a local Shul with another UAlbany alum who lives in the same town of West Hempstead. In that synagogue where we prayed, just behind me on the bookshelf was a set of (nicely reset) Ritvah! So I looked up the Ritva in Eruvin 13, found what Rav Schachter quoted, plus this last line:
The Ritvah says the French Rabbis have a proper interpretation, but a deeper layer of truth has a reasoning/explanation for this concept according to the mystical teachings of Torah. I found that extra line quite interesting! Perhaps, this is what Rebbe is alluding to in his take on this complex subject!