Review of Kuntres Birkat Yitzchak: He’arot Le-Masechet Sanhedrin, fourth edition
Kuntres Birkat Yitzchak: He’arot Le-Masechet Sanhedrin, fourth edition
By Rabbi Menachem Genack
Bnei Brak, 2024
148 pages
Reviewed by Rabbi Gil Student
In 1968, a twenty-year-old Menachem Genack—not yet a rabbi—published a short book of Talmudic essays on the tractate of Sanhedrin in memory of his recently deceased father, Rabbi Chaim Yitzchak Genack. As most readers know, Rabbi Menachem Genack—my teacher and mentor—has established himself as not only a leader in kosher supervision (he serves as CEO, OU Kosher) but also a premier Torah scholar and an important conduit of the insights of his esteemed teacher, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. In Birkat Yitzchak, recently released in an expanded fourth edition, Rabbi Genack shows the key to how a brilliant but inexperienced youth can embody wisdom and insight.
Birkat Yitzchak originally contained fifty-four essays on topics across the tractate of Sanhedrin. The expanded edition adds many small comments to those essays and another six related essays. The sefer is a goldmine of insights from Rabbi Soloveitchik, many of which for decades were not available anywhere except in this sefer. Rabbi Genack often builds his essays on his mentor’s insights, using Rabbi Soloveitchik’s conceptual distinctions in one place to solve other problems. In this way, Rabbi Genack attaches himself to a great scholar, studies and absorbs his approach, and builds on it to create an even greater edifice. The key to achieving greatness yourself is linking yourself to the greatness of a giant of the previous generation. Even at the age of twenty, Rabbi Genack reached the level of successfully creating his own conceptual distinctions in applying Rabbi Soloveitchik’s “Brisker” approach.
Readers familiar with rabbinic Hebrew and Talmudic concepts will delight in the many essays that analyze debates across the tractate of Sanhedrin.
Sanhedrin is a fascinating tractate that covers a lot of ground, discussing kings and prophets, witnesses and courts, Jews and gentiles, and much more. It is also a tractate that crosses between halachah and aggadah, law and lore. Rabbi Genack chooses topics across the gamut but often from among the most enticing subjects. For example, he discusses the ruling (Sanhedrin 19b) that a king may not forgo his own honor. That seems to be contradicted by the fact that Moshe was a king and set aside his own honor when bowing down to his father-in-law, Yitro. In a classical Brisker distinction, Rabbi Genack suggests that there are two aspects to the honor owed to a king: 1) honor of the king himself (gavra), as an individual, 2) honor of the position of royalty (cheftza), to the status of king as an institution. When we honor the position of the king, we constantly reaffirm his appointment to that role. A king can waive his own honor, like anyone else. However, he cannot waive the honor to his position because that would undermine his appointment to that role. Moshe was a king who was appointed by G-d, not by man. Therefore, only the first aspect applies to him, which he may waive. Any other king, though, must maintain the honor to his position to reaffirm his appointment.
The Mishnah (Sanhedrin 89a) says that someone who fails to heed the statement of a prophet and a prophet who violates his own statement are subject to Divine punishment. Why, Rabbi Genack asks, is there a need for a separate rule about a prophet who violates his own statement? Isn’t that subsumed under the rule of failing to heed to a statement of a prophet? Building on an insight of Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik, Rabbi Genack suggests that people are only required to follow the verbal command of prophecy. If a prophet fails to say his prophecy, we are not obligated to fulfill his unspoken words. In contrast, a prophet knows his own prophecy and must follow it even if he never verbalizes it. Therefore, there is a need for a separate prohibition for a prophet who violates his own, even unspoken, prophecy. Rabbi Genack then suggests a completely different answer to his original question. Perhaps the general public is required to obey a prophet himself (gavra) and not necessarily his prophecy (cheftza). However, the prophet does not obey himself. Rather, he must obey the prophecy. For this reason, there is a need for a separate prohibition on the prophet not to violate his own prophecy.
With his clear thinking and concise prose, Rabbi Genack demonstrates not only how to create Brisker Torah but also how to convey it. Readers familiar with rabbinic Hebrew and Talmudic concepts will delight in the many essays that analyze debates across the tractate of Sanhedrin. Rabbi Genack points out apparent problems, builds tension of conflicting passages and rulings, and resolves them with the clarity of precise definitions and distinctions. He then proceeds to adduce proofs for, and further applications of, his conceptual distinctions. Birkat Yitzchak is not only an extremely useful sefer on Sanhedrin but also a master class in clear thinking and rabbinic writing.
Rabbi Gil Student is a member of Jewish Action’s Editorial Committee.