<HTML>Re: Dr. Moshe Sokolow's query about the appearance of the term "emunat
hakhamim," aside from frequent mention of a sefer called "Emunat
Hakhamim" (by R. Aviad Sar-Shalom Bazila, I believe) in many teshuvot,
the pseudo-Mishnah in Avot 6:5 (Perek "Kinyan Torah") mentions "emunat
hakhamim" as one of the 48 "darkhei kinyan Torah."
The term has certainly enjoyed much more use in the last century or so
than at any time previously, concurrent with the increased popularity and
articulation of the ideology of "Da'as Torah." In that connection, it
means not only accepting the teaching or authority of Hazal (i.e., the
Tanna'im and Amora'im, the issue discussed in previous posts here with
regard to Talmudic medicine), but of the gedolim of one's time as well (a
position most clearly supported by the Sefer Ha-Hinukh).
Recent (i.e., 20th century) sifrei mussar and sifrei hashkafa, such as R.
Eliyahu Dessler's "Mikhtav Me-Eliyahu" and others of its genre,
frequently mention emunat hakhamim and connect it with da'as Torah as
well. In this context, emunat hakhamim sometimes refers not only to
rabbinic authority to transmit and interpret Torah, but to an expanded
rabbinic authority which encompasses political power, personal matters
(whom to marry, what career to pursue, where to live, etc.) and other
areas of authority which one might not have connected with rabbinic
authority at first thought. (In one piece, in response to a question
about why the gedolim of the time did not advise their followers to
escape Europe and the Nazis, R. Dessler goes so far as to hint that the
Holocaust itself was caused by the sin of deficient emunat hakhamim.) I
suppose the question of expanding emunat hakhamim underlies the debate
taking place on Lookjed about whether it includes believing that Hazal
were expert in medicine and not just Torah.
This isn't the place to discuss Da'as Torah or emunat hakhamim's
expanding scope, but since someone mentioned it . . . .
Eitan Mayer
Chaver Machon Beren, RIETS</HTML>
