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The Source for This Procedure
The Gemara in Pesachim 66a relates that
because the great Hillel was energetic, only he understood
when and why respect for Shabbat must give way to
implement the great principle of our first mitzvah, korban Pesach.
For this he was appointed the Prince of world Jewry.
The Gemara continues. It happened immediately after his appointment,
that Hillel HaNassi humbly admitted that he had forgotten a certain
vitally relevant halacha also pertaining to the Shabbat-First Mitzvah
interaction. However, simultaneously, Hillel provided a still more humbler
solution to the quest for Torah knowledge.
He said to his sagacious colleagues who collectively with him were
the repository of Torah Truth, that they should passively wait and see
how communal Jewry would react to the situation in question. Hillel
taught that the intuitive Jewish reaction would provide the Torah Truth!
The sages agreed to abstain from making public halachic statements and
to humbly defer to the prophetic intuition of the Jewish people. The
unprecedented procedure was even more successful than planned. As the
sages observed the manner in which the holy people pledged their annual
Pesach allegiance to Torah values, Hillel’s holy Daas was reinvigorated
and he recalled the tradition that he had received from his rebeim,
Shmaya and Avtalyon, which precisely mirrored the people’s conduct!
ProjectTruth suggests that this Gemara demonstrates that in
certain circumstances, popular Jewry can be trusted to provide
the Truth - especially when there is no Rabbinic solution. ProjectTruth
suggests that the Rabbi Fuerst-Shabat situation comes within the scope
of those certain circumstances. Intuitively, the parallels are obvious.
ProjectTruth is not asking 2423 people to issue their halachic
opinion on how to handle the Rabbi Fuerst-Shabat situation. ProjectTruth is
asking 2423 people to intuitively express whether it's right
for a powerful public servant, against whom extremely serious
allegations are leveled, to remain elusively above the law. ProjectTruth
posits that how the Chicago Jewish Community intuitively reacts in
this situation will manifest to the world a bonafide G-dly view on
this situation.
So, Take an intuitive Jewish Stand and mail in one of the
2423 CPA verified envelopes.
The deeper understanding of this Gemara - that the Jewish people
collectively are a repository of True Divine Will that can be tapped -
is to be found in the sefer Pachad Yitzchok, the volume on Chanukah,
pages 126-127 reproduced below.
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