Tradition and Wisdom - How do we know which Possek to follow?

In my last post before the Chag I discussed the word Chochma and how Rambam understands it when it refers to God. In the same discussion in MN 3:54 Rambam defines the word Chochma as it relates to us humans. He points out that sometimes it means the Torah itself at others it means the wisdom required to demonstrate the rationale of the Torah that we received.

“But as the truths contained in the Law are taught by way of tradition, not by a philosophical method, the knowledge of the Law came to be set up in the Books of the prophets and the saying of the sages as one separate species and wisdom, in an unrestricted sense, as another species. It is through this wisdom, in an unrestricted sense, that the rational matter that we receive from the Law through tradition is demonstrated… Our Sages further say, that man has first to acquire knowledge of the Torah, then to obtain wisdom and then to know what is incumbent on him with regard to the legal sciences of the Law – I mean the drawing of inferences concerning what one ought to do.”

Rambam lays out a procedure that we must follow when learning Torah. First we receive it as given. We study the texts and traditions we receive from our parents and teachers. We then try to understand the reason for these received laws, the philosophical, logical and ethical underpinnings for the rules. Only then do we know how to extrapolate from them and apply them to our daily lives. It is not just a legalistic system but also a fully integrated one that is based on logic, ethics and theology. One cannot legislate practical Halacha without also being steeped in logic and philosophy. Our laws are logical and must be well understood before one can undertake to legislate.

“This is also the right order: we must first learn the truths by tradition; then they should be demonstrated; then the actions through which one’s way of life may be ennobled, should be precisely defined.”

As anyone that learns Rambam’s Halachik work knows, he is always consistent and every rule has an underlying logic. Unlike the Beit Yosef, Rabbi Yosef Karo who wrote the Shulchan Aruch using a method where he followed the majority of opinions of the Rishonim on each issue, thus having sometimes-contradictory rules, Rambam is fully consistent. (The Beit Yosef was a great thinker and Mekubal and that is why the Shulchan Aruch is accepted as the Halacha sefer for all Jews. However the method he chose to decide differences of opinion (see his introduction to Kessef Mishna) led to some inconsistencies.)

The laws have to be rational. A rabbi who has not integrated the Torah with its philosophy, who legislates based on mechanical rules only, cannot be taken seriously. The real great legal minds in Judaism were also great thinkers who were able to discern the rationale behind each Halacha. Unfortunately they are rare and few apart and one needs a certain dose of sophistication and learning to be able to evaluate who these contemporary real Possekim are.