What Is Da'at Torah?

1:35Yom Kippur is a tikkun for that year. But to have the Shekhinah, we can do teshuva every day, on the spot. We can know what Hashem wants every day, on the spot. We can fix everything every day, on the spot. Why? We have the Beit HaMikdash. The Shekhinah is here. It's such a big day that Yom Kippur can be skipped this year. That was Da'at Torah. And the people had an uncomfortable time listening to this Da'at Torah because it was so far. So in order to fulfill his own words, where HaKadosh Baruch Hu says that He makes the righteous. Right among the public. Meaning, if his Chachamim say something, even if that something is wrong, Hashem will make it right. Hashem will make it right. I'll give you an example. It's actually one of the things I wanted to talk about.

2:45where you'll understand what Da'at Torah is, because that's actually one of the problems that we have today, is that people think that if, let's say, Rav Kanievsky says something, or the Steipler Gaon's father said something when he was alive, or Rav Wasserman says, said something, or when he said something, or someone who's even alive today, but if a he said something, you cannot just say, I don't have to listen to him. I may choose to listen to someone else. Like when the doctor said, everybody has to wear a mask. However, Rav Chaim Kanievsky stated that you don't have to wear a mask if you're learning Torah. If you learn Torah in Yeshiva, the specific people that he was talking to, you don't have to wear a mask. No, but Rav Chaim Kanievsky, no way. Doctors know more than Rav Chaim Kanievsky. So people have a misunderstanding of Rav Chaim Kanievsky, Torah, and doctors. Why? They think that the doctor knows better than Rav Chaim Kanievsky because he's a doctor. So...

3:58The mistake is that people compare the Torah to secular subjects, and this is also part of the reason why many people in, perhaps, let’s say the modern Orthodox world and the just regular secular world have an impossible time being connected to Hashem as He wants it. but rather customize the Torah to fit their own life. You know, they accept Shabbat, but whatever they feel like it. They accept Kashrut, but their own standards, not Da'at Torah standards. Why? Because they don't think that Da'at Torah, that the opinion of the Torah, the opinion of the Chachamim, It's really a, you know, firm opinion about Hashem. They think, he is human, I am human. The Rambam is human, I am human. So, why should I listen to him? That's the mistake. Now, to take it even deeper, before we get to the answer, the Gemara in Masechet Eruvin, page 13, says there's machloket between Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel. There are over 300 machlokot between Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel in the Nashas. Something around 360 machlokot between them. Most of them, halacha goes like Beit Hillel. Most of them. The chachamim say that in Olam HaBa it goes like Beit Shammai, after Mashiach comes, Beit Shammai. Most of them. But needless to say, we must understand the depth and wisdom in these discussions. Each opinion, whether from Beit Shammai or Beit Hillel, truly reflects a profound understanding and an incredible perspective on Torah law.

5:15says there's a machloket between Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel. There are over 300 machlokot between Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel in the Shas, something around 360 machlokot between them. In most of these, halacha follows Beit Hillel. The chachamim say that in Olam Haba, it will go like Beit Shammai. After Mashiach comes, it will follow Beit Shammai. Most of them. But needless to say... The Gemara here says that Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel had a machloket. Halacha is like Beit Hillel in this particular machloket, but zeh v'zeh divrei Elokim chayim. Both this and this are the words of the living God. So, this is confusing. Why?

6:16If they're both words of the living God, why is Hillel right? Why is it "Halacha K'Hillel"? Shouldn't it be "Halacha K'Both of them"? If they're both the words of Hashem, why is there a machloket? This question was posed over 800 years ago, nearly 700 years ago, by the Ritva. The Ritva comments on this Gemara. It says, when the Gemara states that both of these words are the words of the living God, the question arises: how could both be? the words of the living God. If it is like one of them, whether it doesn't make a difference, but how can they both be the words of the living God? And the answer is one of the most important questions and answers that we have to understand Judaism and the right ideology. The Torah left certain judgments open for the Chachamim to conclude and derive.

7:42to become Daas Torah, to the point where there's a rule of meaning that there are certain halachot, that we do not learn from drashot, but rather we only learn from the p'shat. The Chachamim have to pasken on this issue. because HaKadosh Baruch Hu did not give us the Torah complete. Rather, He left certain parts of it open for interpretation by Moshe Rabbeinu and the Chachamim until this day, to make us partners in the Torah. So much so, that there are certain things that happen in the Gemara, and a bat kol says, this is what the Halacha is. And the Chachamim said, no, we don't learn from bad decisions. We learn from the rules that Hashem gave us at Mount Sinai of how we pasken halacha.

8:47So, we don't learn the Torah directly from heaven in this manner. We learn it based on the principles that Hashem provided to us at Mount Sinai regarding how to pasken halacha. Unless there's something explicit and clear that we already know from Moshe Misinai, there are certain areas that HaKadosh Baruch Hu deliberately left open for interpretation by the Chachamim, who utilize these rules to pasken. The Ritva elaborates on this significantly. that once the Chachamim pass it here, this becomes the halacha in Shamayim. Meaning, if, let's say, the halacha in Shamayim, that Hashem left for interpretation, but obviously Hashem knows what the halacha is. Let's say He picked red. He picked red in Shamayim, but He left it for interpretation for the Chachamim here. And the Chachamim use the tools that they have, that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave us. And they arrived at blue. They arrived, halacha is blue. At that moment, HaKadosh Baruch Hu changes the halacha in Shamayim. Why? That's the rule that He instilled into the world. Now, to give an example of this, to give an example of this...

10:17The Midrash comments on the verse in the book of Psalms, chapter 57, verse 3: "I will call upon God Most High, to the God who fulfills for me." The Midrash says that this verse is where HaKadosh Baruch Hu tells us that when you call upon Him, you honor Him, you fulfill His Torah, you learn, and you toil in it. It is God who fulfills for you. This means that Hashem agrees with the Chachamim in their Pesach, even if His original Pesach was left for us to interpret. This verse is where HaKadosh Baruch Hu tells us that when you call upon Him, you honor Him, you fulfill His Torah, you learn, and you toil in it, it is God who fulfills for me. This means that Hashem agrees with the Chachamim with their p'sak. Even if His p'sak originally that He left for us for interpretation, Even if his psak is different, he fulfills our words. Meaning he now repasks like Beit Shammai because of what the Chachamim did over here. And the Midrash says there's an example. There's a rule in the Gemara that says that if, lo aleinu ve-lo aleichem, a little girl has an accident or, chas v'shalom, is violated before the age of three years old,

11:42And obviously, this breaks the hymen. Now, the Gemara says, the Chachamim concluded that if it occurs before three years old, the hymen reconstructs and returns as if nothing ever happened. However, if the event occurs after three years old, the hymen remains broken. If it happens before three years old, the hymen will regenerate. Hashem built the world in such a way that the hymen will reconstruct when she is younger, as if nothing happened. However, if it occurs after the age of three, if the hymen is broken after three years old, it remains broken. So then the Chachamim ask, okay, but what about a Shana Me'uberet, a leap year? Leap year. Why? Because in a leap year, we have Adar Sheni. The Chachamim add, seven times every 19 years, a second Adar. Two Adars. There's one Adar, but they add an Adar Bet. Now, who decides this? The Rabbis, the sages decide it.

12:55Not Hashem. Hashem left it for us, and the sages decided, laying out a mathematical calculation until Mashiach comes, so that we already know ahead of time which years are going to have two Adars. But back in the times of the Gemara, they used to decide this based on their own calculations in real-time. Now we already have this knowledge until Mashiach comes. But at that time, they used to conclude when the month began and when the month ended based on the moon, specifically the renewal of the moon. But that also means that the Sanhedrin would decide which year they would add a 13th month to the Hebrew calendar to align the lunar year with the solar year. This intercalation would happen 7 times every 19 years, following the Metonic cycle. You can see all the details of this complex system in the texts. Now, the question is, when it pertains to this rule, it's important to understand the concept of a physical rule in this context. Meaning, there's a physical aspect here. There's a girl, and something physical happened to her—perhaps a trauma or an accident of some kind—that resulted in a broken hymen. However, according to halacha, if she's below three years old, it can naturally heal. If she's above three, it doesn't regenerate in this way. So as the Midrash discusses, on the day of her third birthday...

14:17The Sanhedrin paskins, no. We are going to have a second Adar. We're going to add that moment; we're going to add a 13th month. So technically, technically, she's three years old—she's less than three years old for another month. She's still technically in her twos. So does the Haman take that into consideration? The Midrash says, absolutely. Hashem changes nature and will reconstruct this girl physically for the sake of showing that the Chachamim are right. That's how valuable Da'at Torah is in the eyes of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. That's how valuable it is. So when we see that Am Yisrael is glued to Hashem, what does that mean, glued to Hashem? You're glued to Da'at Torah.

15:32People who think that they can just connect to Hashem and ignore the Chachamim, listening to them only when they want to and not when they don't want to, have no idea what they're talking about. There is no such thing as an intermediary in Judaism, but Chachamim are not intermediaries. Chachamim simply communicate what Hashem said. Because you don't know what he said. Because you did not toil over the Torah for all of the decades that they have. You cannot interpret the Torah like they can. And that's the reality. If you think you can, then ego is your problem. Because HaKadosh Baruch Hu is willing to change nature for the Chachamim. He's not necessarily willing to change nature for some average Joe. Because those Chachamim are His representatives. They're the ones that He relies on to give the message to the rest of us. They find such favor in His eyes. He loves the Chachamim so much that He literally changes the world for them.

16:46They say something, he fulfills it. And this is one of the most valuable things that a person needs to know when they're asking a Talmid Chacham, someone that has Yirat Shamayim, or perhaps a Gadol. They're asking a question, and the response that they got doesn't sit well with them. Take that opinion of yours that tells you this response doesn't sit well with you, take it, crumble it inside a little piece of paper, put some oil on it—cooking oil or oil from the car, whichever one you prefer, whatever is of quicker access. Then, take a match, or perhaps a lighter, depending on your preference. Put them in a bucket so it doesn't cause a big fire, and burn that opinion of yours. Burn it as soon as possible. Why? Your opinion doesn't matter. If you asked a question and he gave you an answer according to the Torah, you do it just as if Hashem said to do it. Why? Because now that you've asked the question and he gave you an answer, HaKadosh Baruch Hu paskins like him.

18:03I'll give you an example. Somebody came to Rav Kanievsky. He said, "Kvod HaRav, I'm about to retire in a few months, and I was wondering whether I should take all my pension money and buy a house in such and such community." Rav Kanievsky says to him, "Come back to me when you have the money." Now Rav Kanievsky is not much for words. He doesn't have long conversations with people. He says a few things, finishes, next. The guy gets up, confused, more confused than he was before. He says, why is Rav Kanievsky telling me to come back when I have the money? Is he really telling me? that I'm not going to get the money. After 30 or 40 years of working for this company, they're really not going to give me my pension. The whole thing is a fraud. I'm going to lose everything. What's going to happen? I don't know. Why did he say it? So for the next several months, he doesn't know where to go. He doesn't know what to do. He can't wait to get this money, but he doesn't have access to it yet. After several months, finally, he retires, and he gets the money. He comes back to Rav Chaim Kanievsky, and he says, ah, Kvod Harav, Baruch Hashem, I got the money.

19:12Rav Kanievsky says, good, you should buy the house. He said, but why couldn't the Kavod HaRav tell me six months ago? So Rav Kanievsky says to him, six months ago it was a hypothetical question because you didn't have the money in your hand. So I didn't have the special assistance from Shamayim to tell you the right answer. I only had my opinion. But now that it's a question that's actual because you have the money in hand, you ask me a question, I'm giving you an answer and I'm relying on the fact that Hashem is the one that's putting the words in my mouth for your sake. Because now it's an actual question. It's a realistic question. It's a question for right now. It's not a hypothetical question anymore. So now I have the answer for you. Six months ago, I didn't have an answer for you. Now I have an answer for you. You ask a Rav something. It's a real question. He gives you an answer, and you don't like the answer, that's too bad. Why? If you are not going to listen to the answers, don't ask questions. Don't ask questions.

20:20And this is one of the things that hurts a lot of people because they look for Rabbi Noach. You know what Rabbi Noach is, right? Have you ever heard of Rabbi Noach? Noach is not only Noach from the Torah. Noach also means comfort. So they're looking for the rabbi that is going to give them the most comfort. Meaning, whatever is comfortable for you. So what did he say? Do it? No, it's not comfortable for me. What did he say? Maybe? No, it's not so comfortable for me. What did he say? No, do whatever you want. Oh, I like this guy. This guy is Gadol HaDor. He told me I can do whatever I want. This guy is Tzadik Kadosh. Give me a hand. Let me kiss it. Let me kiss it. He told me I can do whatever I want. This guy is like Nach, Rabbi Noah. So that's the thing. You have to understand. HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves the Chachamim. Loves the Chachamim. Because they invest their whole life, invest their whole life for the sake of the Torah all day. And when a person understands that, he asks a question, he receives an answer, and he goes with it. The same thing applies to women, obviously, the same thing. Next question. We're almost done. Okay, Chavot.

21:26We're very excited to offer you the new Be'ezrat Hashem app 3.0. It's a newer, faster app, full of Torah, filled with lots of Kedusha from the shiurim that we do. Myself, Rav Ephraim, Rav Chaim, where you'll have also newer features where you'll be able to use the app while using other applications on your phone. You'll be able to share the shiurim directly from the app. You'll be able to donate online and support our kehillah and our Torah work that we're doing. And the most exciting feature is that you'll be able to actually ask questions directly on the app and get answers from the rabbanim directly from the app. This is something unprecedented, and b'ezrat Hashem, we will be able to offer it. Thank you again for all of your support. Check it out. Make sure you have the Kosher Torah that will re-energize your neshamah each and every single day. Kol tuv u'b'hatzlacha.