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My understanding of the concept of Daas Torah is that we follow the wishes of the Gedolim even if we don’t understand their reasoning. If so, I have a kasha from a gemara.
The gemara says that Rebbi Meir was greater than Rebbe Yehudah. If so, why do we pasken in the majority of cases like Rebbi Yehudah? Because we could not understand the depth of Rebbi Meir’s logic, so we pasken according to the view that we understand.
So we see from here that we only go according to the shittos that we understand, not those we don’t understand. If so, how can we follow a Daas Torah if we don’t understand the reason for it? We should only follow the view we do understand.
Can anyone answer this for me?
Usually, the term Daas Torah is used for ideas not directly in the realm of halachah. Your kasha is on halachah.
Agreed with DY that the klal about RM vs. RY is halacha related. But it is even more than that. Rishonim say the reason we don’t pasken like RM is because he was so smart, and we are not capable of discerning when he is offering a halachic argument defending the position he holds to be accurate, or when he is arguing the opposite side, playing a form of “devil’s advocate.” If we would be smart enough to know which arguments he held to be halachically valid, not counter, then we would pasken that way, even if we didn’t understand.
Shoomie:
I don’t think the two can be correlated.
First, who is the “we” who pasken like Rabi Yehuda over Rabi Meir? Not us. Second, both are legitimate opinions, “Eilu viEilu…”; the question is only which of the two to pick in practice.
None of this relates to Daas Torah.
Also, I believe that Gemora doesn’t mean that “lower level” poskim only poskin according to their own understanding and ignore the psakim of the Gedolim of this and earlier generations that they don’t understand. It is referring to the process of determining Halacha by the Amoroim from the Tannaim. A very different inyan. I think the proposed conclusion in your second paragraph therefore is not correct. I think
Are you saying that in halacha we have to understand them, but in hanhaga/hashkafa we don’t have to understand them?
No, I’m just pointing out that your question is misapplied. As you well know, we do follow poskim even if we don’t understand. So, as midwesterner has done, learn the rishonim on the sugya, but don’t extrapolate falsehoods from your boich teirutz to a kashya.
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