Wednesday 5 September 2018

Rabbi David Segal (the TaZ)



Rabbi Segal is widely known as the TaZ , after the name of the commentary he wrote on the Shulchan Aruch – the rabbinical work of day to day practical halacha.


He was greatly respected and is still considered a major Rabbinic authority.

It is stated by tha Taz on several occasions that “although the Sages have leeway to enact their own new prohibitions, they may not prohibit something explicitly permitted by the Torah” 


Indeed, this is itself derived from the Talmud.

If this is to be the case, and it appears to be quite widely accepted, then he is essentially making the same argument as Karaites do.  Of course there are endless examples,  but if we look at the prohibition of consuming chicken with dairy products, which is purely rabbinical, it is quite clear from the Torah that this is not forbidden.  It might be argued that not everything is explicitly permitted, however, that is nitpicking. The principle is very powerful, and can be applied to almost every case where Karaites would argue against adding to the Torah.

This one idea of the Taz, repudiates the entire Oral law thesis, the Talmud and the Shulchan Aruch which he comments upon.



2 comments:

  1. If you cannot cook or seethe a kid in its mother's milk, where is it stated that you cannot eat a kid in another goat's milk or a cow's milk? The fact that Hashem was with Avraham and the three strangers when they ate the dairy curd and meat to His melachim. Did G-d forget His rule.

    Genesis 18:13-14

    Then the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I in truth bear a child, old as I am?’ 14Is anything too wondrous for the LORD? I will return to you at the same season next year, and Sarah shall have a son.”

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  2. In the case of Avraham, he did not boil the calf in the milk, he just served milk products together with meat.
    there are several ways of interpreting them, but nobody holds that eating one with the other is from the Torah. If you eat them on the same plate, but they are not cooked togetehr, there is no violation of the Torah.

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