לכב' ידיד נפשי ר' אהרן ישראל ב"ר משה מרדכי וכל בני ביתו האהובים!!
The Rambam [Tefilla 4/3] says that one has to wash his face, hands and feet every morning in order to honor his Creator and then daven. The Raavad politely asks [he isn't always as polite:-)]: Where does the Rambam get "feet" from? There is no source for that??
But the "Double Money" ["כסף משנה"] shows that the Rambam has an open gemara [Shabbos 50b] upon which he based his halacha. רוחץ אדם פניו ידיו ורגליו בכל יום לכבוד קונו. So what is the Raavad's problem?? [In the last teshuva in the Noda Bi-yehuda he discusses why the Shulchan Aruch omitted "feet"].
The Raavad learned a DIFFERENT gemara that talks about washing hands and omits feet so he was basing himself on that gemara.
This machlokes between the Rambam and Raavad has echoes in Medrashei Chazal.
Let us enjoy the TREMENDOUS zchus of learning the Torah of HaGaon Rav Yitzchak Weiss ztz"l, who was killed by the Nazis. הי"ד. [A CHUTZPAH!!:-) There is no wiki page about him. So maybe more biographical info in a future post. To paraphrase Chazal "במקום שאין ויקי, תשתדל להיות ויקי].
זכותו יגן עלינו ועל כל ישראל!!!
