Great Minds Don’t Always Think Alike
The title above was the tagline of an ad campaign promoting one of the world’s most prominent lecture series in the late 1990’s. It’s a brilliant ad and it’s true.
It’s also eminently Jewish.
The Talmud, Judaism second holiest book after the Torah, is a 63 tractate compendium of Jewish law and lore. With all of its profound insights there are times when it is crystal clear and other times when the rabbinic arguments can be difficult to follow.
And yet, the Talmud models an important quality. The Talmud doesn’t only record the final decision on Jewish legal matters. It records the arguments including both the majority and the minority opinion. That’s why when we study Talmud we are privy to many profound thinkers, including those whose arguments were rejected.
The Talmud embodied the concept that the ad campaign used some 2000 years later. Great minds don’t always think alike.
— Rabbi David Woznica