Dear Rabbi Cohen,
In response to your inquiry for passages from the Torah Temimah that are interesting, important, or just good to be familiar with, you may find the following suggestions of interest:
Bereishit 24:14 note 18 – Here Rabbi Epstein offers a creative solution in which he seeks to show the unity of Torah SheBichtav & Torah SheB’al Peh to the problem of who Eliezer was able to drink before his animals given the principle that we should feed our animals before ourselves.
Bereishit 28:11 note 5 – Here we read a classic example where Rabbi Epstein seeks to show the unity of Torah SheBichtav & Torah SheB’al Peh by proposing a fascinating explanation why Ma’ariv is a reshut.
Bereishit 34:25 note 8 – Here we see Rabbi Epstein as a brilliant Talmudic & halachic scholar and explaining a machloket between Rashi & Rambam (regarding whether a person/baby is weak for three days after surgery/milah, or only on the third day) while constantly adding biblical content to the debate.
Bereishit 50:10 note 11 - Here again we see Rabbi Epstein as a brilliant Talmudic & halachic scholar. In this instance, he is discussing the origins of the laws of shiva and whether we can learn Halacha from events that took place prior to Matan Torah.
Shemot 15:25 note 36 – As you may know, Rabbi Epstein was wont to offer creative solutions to classic questions, often citing טעות סופר as a reason for the initial confusion. One of his boldest suggestions is where he proposes that while the law of Kibud Av (×›''×) was given at Marah, a printing error led to the tradition that the laws of Parah Aduma (פ''×) were given there. This is challenged by numerous commentaries such as the Yosef Hillel (on this verse) and Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky (Emet L’Yaakov, Shemot 24:3).
Vayikra 19:16 note 110 – Here too we see Rabbi Epstein as a brilliant Talmudic & halachic scholar. In this instance, he is discussing the permissibility of placing oneself in safek sakana to save the life of another. He offers a suggestion to this question based on an aggada, and then addresses the issue of learning Halacha from aggada.
Bemidbar 5:18 notes 95 & 96 – Here is a great example of how Rabbi Epstein works hard to make sense of drashot cited to support religious pratices. In this case, he is looking at the different biblical texts offered to support the practice of married women covering their hair.
Devarim 31:19 note 26 – Here Rabbi Epstein deduces from the commandment to write a Sefer Torah that the purpose of this law is to increase the amount of Torah study
Devarim 33:4 note 17 – This is one of the many exquisite explanations offered by Rabbi Epstein where he explains that when we actively learn Torah, we consummate our marriage with Torah.
It should be noted that in addition to all the above, I would highly recommend surveying the introduction of the Torah Temimah in which he presents his core objectives and how his work joins other scholars who sought to unify Torah Shebichtav & Torah Sheb’al Peh.
In addition to the above, you may also be interested in a shiur I delivered on ‘The exegetical methodology of Rabbi Baruch Halevi Epstein’s Tosefet Bracha’ in which I identified the 7 different approaches which he employs in that work. Many of these approaches are also found in his Torah Temimah.
Kol Tuv,
Johnny
Rabbi Johnny Solomon
Director, Jewish Education Consultancy
052-603-0962 (Israel)
[
jewisheducationconsultancy.com]
