Where there’s Gold, there is muck – the Taz and the Rabbis

One great Rabbi known as the Taz – Turei Zahav (named after his book) was a significant Polish authority on Halacha.  Our friend Rabbi Gil Student writes that the Taz wrote a famous maxim that “The Sages are unable to contradict an explicit biblical permission”. See http://hirhurim.blogspot.co.uk/2006/05/shofar-on-yom-kippur.html

Now this in itself is a tremendous statement, which effectively renders the entire rabbanite enterprise null and void.   Anything that the Bible does not forbid would seem to be explicitly permitted.   Also, what the Bible does forbid, such as adding and subtracting,  has been explicitly violated by the rabbis.   Although Gil Student claims that this was a famous saying by the Taz it is relatively unknown, presumably because it  is so contrary to rabbinic falsifications of the Law.

There is a saying “where there’s muck , there’s brass” , meaning where some dirt may be found, there may potentially be some profitable opportunity,  e.g. recycling business.  I have reversed the saying, and since the Turei Zahav is actually referring to gold, hence the title of

Where there’s Gold, there is muck. In this case, the muck refers to the various rabbinic commentaries to the statement of the Taz, which  try to minimize its application, with a thousand qualifications.  Incidentally, this is a well used strategy of the rabbis, which is minimize, obscure, and deny any truthful statements found in the torah or even the rabbis, which damage the authority of the Rabbanites.

The basic statement of the Taz, however, is something we can all agree with.