Rabbinic literature in Lithuania after the death of the Gaon

ENThe subject of this paper is the legacy of learning left by the Gaon of Vilna. Understanding this legacy is no simple matter, for the written corpus of the Gaon is unlike any other in the history of rabbinic literature. He did not bring any of his works to publication; many of the books published in his name are reconstructions from student notes, some of which it is claimed he saw and approved; his major works of classical rabbinic literature were not written in the time honored forms of Ashkenazic learning, but were limited to largely textual notes designed to determine the proper wording of the sacred texts. Even his "commentary" on the Shulkhan Arukh, the predominant code of Jewish law, is mostly a collection of notes pointing to the sources of the law code, the precise intent of which is sometimes difficult to discern. He left no written legacy that could readily inform later generations how he analyzed material, what specifically he rejected in the work of previous commentators, or how he would have his students learn the sacred texts of the Jewish tradition. In terms of his method of learning, he mostly left a slogan, namely reject pilpul, the dominant way of studying the Talmud, and adopt the derekh ha-yashar, the straight path. What precisely this means is certainly far from clear [p. 88].