@GAW – I’m sure others will agree that your first statement to me was pointless. You said nothing. ROB and I may quarrel a lot and not see eye to eye, but at least he tries to bring sources to back his statements. You have stated nothing.
@ROB – your request is justified. I ask forgiveness, but I’m not feeling well today due to the fast and am only keeping myself up to gain strength to daven Maariv. I will try, B”N to look it up and respond tomorrow.
@Trust 789 – you wrote, “Today nobody has real smicha. So you can’t compare listening to today’s talmidei chachomim with Mordechai.” You obviously concluded this on your own. Please bring any Halachic source that concludes the way you do.
In contrast here are words for thought:
Bava Basra 12/a: The Insights of the Chachamim
“Rav Avdimi of Cheifa said, ‘From the day that the Holy Temple was destroyed, prophecy was removed from the prophets and given to the Chachamim,’ [meaning,] even though it was removed from the prophets, it was not removed from the Chachamim.”
Ramban:
“The prophecy of the Chachamim, which is via wisdom, was not removed; rather, they know the Truth through the Holy Spirit that is within them .”
Ritva:
“There are those [Chachamim] who grasp many things with their intellect that are not within the power of the natural intellect to grasp.”
The Chasam Sofer:
In Orach Chaim teshuvah 208, he states that the Nevu’ah (prophecy) that was not removed from the Chachamim refers to that Chelek (portion) of prophecy that the Chacham attains through his Chochma. When he is learner of Torah Lishmah, he has intellectual attainments beyond his natural capacities and Hashem helps him arrive at the truth.
The Ran: Heeding the Gedolim
From Derashos HaRan HaShaleim
published by Mossad HaRav Kook * 2003
Drush 11
[ ]
Drush 12
Sefer HaChinuch: Heeding the Gedolei HaDor
In Tradition 27:4 [Summer 1993], Rav Yonason Sacks has an article on rabbinic authority. He quotes the Mishnas Yavaz to the effect that, according to the Ramban, the Sifri and the Yerushalmi support the view of the Sefer HaChinuch in Mitzvos 495 & 496, viz., that following the Gedolei HaDor is a Chiyyuv D’Oraysa, and defying them, an Issur D’Oraysa.
SORRY, I WOULD HAVE JUST SENT A LINK, BUT I GOT ADMONISHED LAST TIME I DID THAT. I’VE GOTTA FOLLOW THE RULES.
🙁