MARK WASHOFSKY

54. Rasson Arusi,"Halakhah veHalakhah leMa aseh beVitsu a Hapalah Melakhutit baMishpat ha’Ivri," Dinei Israel, Vol. 8, 1977, pp. 119-132, and"Derakhim beHeker haHalakhah uve Verurah," Tehumin, Vol. 2, 1981, pp. 513-522. R. Arusi is the Chief Rabbi of Kiryat Onoand a member of the Israel Chief Rabbinate Council. He earned a doctoratein law from the University of Tel Aviv , where he taught law form any years. He is currently a lecturer in Jewish studies at Bar Ilan University .

55. This rule is stated by Rav Sherira Gaon and Rav Hai Gaon; see B.M. Levin, Otsar HaGeonim, Hagigah, nos. 67-69. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule. R. Nissim Gerondi, for example, learns that it is sometimes a mitsvah to pray for the speedy death of a sick person from the story of R. Yehudah HaNasi's last days(Ketubot 104a); see his commentary to Nedarim 40a.

56. One thinks of works of kelalim("rules"), such as Yad Malakhi and Sedei Hemed, which summarize all of these. See also Kahana, pp. 1-8, and Simhah Asaf , Tekufat HaGeonim VeSifrutah, Jerusalem , 1976, pp. 223-245.

57. Arusi in Dinei Israel, p. 121. Weinbergs ruling is found in Seridei Esh, Jerusalem , 1966, Vol. 3, no. 127.

58. Baba Batra 130a: one may act on a teacher's explicit instruction that"this is the law in practice (halakhah lemaaseh)" provided that one does not analogize from that ruling in order to learn the law on another question.

59. Baba Batra 130a, one of the two sources Arusi cites as a warning against reasoning by analogy, also says:"we learn all of halakhah(literally,“the entire Torah '] by way of analogy."

60. Arusi's penchant for classification leads him to overlook the extent to which the Mishneh Torah is as much a commentary, an exegetical-expository guide to Jewish religious thought and practice, as an apodictic code. See, at length, Isadore Twersky , Introduction to the Code of Maimonides, New Haven , 1980, pp. 143fF.

61. Rambam himself would apparently agree; see at note 49, above.

62. Meshiv Davar, Orah Hayim, no. 24. For discussion of this issue see Kahana, pp. 97-107, and Elon, pp. 1215-1219.

63. Darkhei Moshe to Tur, Introduction. Isserles rejects Caro's reliance upon the"three pillars" of authority in favor of the rule hilkheta kevatra'ei,"the law follows the latest authorities," in particular the scholars of Germany and Poland who flourished during the 15th-16th centuries.

64. Yam shel Shelomo, Hulin, Introduction:"I shall not rely upon any one of the poskim more than upon any other...the Talmud itself decides the law."

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