Commentaire de citation sur Les Psaumes 78:37

However, since the Tosafists were accustomed to relying on deep analysis, their hearts were not with [the Geonim] consistently and with strong conviction¹These words are from Psalms 78:37, “But their heart was not constant… and they were not steadfast….” [that is, they did not always follow geonic decisions], nor did the Tosafists place faith in any matter if they themselves did not find the entrance and the light.²The Netziv is using a metaphor he employed in chapter 9, where the doorway and the light in the palace are representative of the knowledge of the traditions that enable one to navigate the pathways of the Talmud. For behold the great genius, Yaakov – that is, Rabbenu Tam³Jacob ben Meir (Rabbenu) Tam (1100–June 9, 1171), the most prominent of the French Tosafists, was born at Ramerupt on the Seine and died at Troyes. Some of his responsa are collected in Sefer ha-Yashar. of blessed memory. [In one case, where a woman’s husband was missing], he with his great wisdom allowed her to remarry on the basis of testimony from a witness who had seen [the husband’s corpse] three days after he had expired. [Although the facial features were not clear so long after death], he relied on the witness’s recognition of the entire body.⁴This ruling, which is written in Rabbenu Tam’s book, Sefer ha-Yashar, siman 92, is cited in Tosafos’s commentary on the Mishnah in Tractate Yevamos 120a. The mishnah in Yevamos states: “Evidence [of identity regarding a dead man] may be lawfully tendered [to allow the widow to remarry] only on [proof afforded by] the full face with the nose, though there were also marks on the man’s body or clothing…. Evidence [of identification] may be tendered only [by those who saw the corpse] within three days [after death, since, after this period, decomposition would make identification difficult].” Rabbenu Tam argues that the Mishnah’s requirement that the identification of the corpse can only be performed within three days of death applies only when a head remains and parts of the body are missing. However, when a complete corpse is available, the body may be identified even after three days. For the ability of one to recognize an object by viewing it in its entirety, tevias ayin, is the strongest form of identification, even if parts of the body such as the face are mutilated. See also Shulhan Aruch, Even ha-Ezer 17:26. The Netziv also discusses this topic in detail in Meshiv Davar 3:28. It is clear from what Rabbenu Tam writes in his Sefer ha-Yashar, that he based his opinion on a nuance in the words of the Bahag.⁵Bahag is an acronym for Ba’al Halachos Gedolos, meaning the author of the work Halachos Gedolos. Some, including the Netziv, attribute the work to R. Yehudai Gaon (Yehudai ben Nahman), the director of the academy of Sura from 757 to 761 C.E. Others attribute the authorship to R. Shimon Kayyara (ninth century). Since the Bahag describes the mishnah in Yevamos using the word simanim, Rabbenu Tam uses that as a proof to support his argument that the three-day requirement applies to a case in which there are only ordinary signs and a lack of tevias ayin. Rabbenu Tam also infers that ordinary signs, as stated in that mishnah, are rabbinic; they are used as a means to verify that a woman’s husband is dead, since the prohibition on her remarrying is based on rabbinic stringencies imposed where her husband was said to have drowned in a very large body of water, mayim she-ein lahem sof. The rabbis required witnesses to see and identify the body because it might be possible to say that her husband survived, and we could not see and verify without doubt that he escaped drowning. However, pertaining to the laws of mourning, the Tosafists held that the first day of mourning is rabbinic. Thus, they rejected the words of the Bahag with a straw of wheat [a weak argument]. As [the Tosafist, the Ri] stated, “R. Yehudai Gaon, the Ba’al Halachos [the Bahag], was a great lamp [for Israel, yet at times his students would use his name to write matters that he did not direct nor intend to write].”⁶According to the Bahag, if one dies on the last day of Yom Tov outside of Israel, mourning must be observed on that day because the first day of mourning is mandated by the Torah, while the last day of Yom Tov outside of Israel is a rabbinic commandment. [Thus, since the Tosafists could not logically accept the Bahag’s opinion as stated. They felt that they could reject that opinion and concluded that it was written by a student].