Eilimah Rabbati - Ein Kol HaAretz chapter 1.1

Eilimah Rabbati - Ein Kol HaAretz - chapter 1.1 (transl. S.A.O.)

The foundation of Emunah (Faith):

In every area of the Torah, there is always something necessary for Emunah (Faith).  Anyone who does not even believe in one letter of all the letters of Torah is called a heretic.  And the same is true for one who believes in the Written Torah and not in the Oral Torah.  And even if he rejects some portion thereof, or in even some matter thereof.  In the sayings of our Rabbis of blessed memory and their later commentators, the denier who maintains those sorts of opinions on the Oral Torah is called a heretic.  This is the case, unless our Rabbis of blessed memory were themselves divided on an issue from the issues that could have been ruled as a specific halakhah, or else if they ceased the halakhic discussion in the Talmud.  Or else in other areas that are not halakhah but are from the Midrashic literature, where they were investigating the uncertain things in the Torah, and the Rabbis themselves were in disagreement in their inquiry.  This statement is a complaint and it is a lament!  It is directed to the Intellect of man - a matter from those conceptual matters, one from those parts.  Once he comprehends this idea he will no longer be called a heretic.

On this parable they were divided in the Gemara and in the Midrash.  Some say it was Job, others say it was not.  And there are sayings from Israel and there are sayings from the peoples of the world.  Here is a choice in the hand of man: to comprehend each opinion from all these views, provided that he ascends in his inner knowledge as much as possible, and to reconcile between the opinions of the sages.  And he does not say 'this is my opinion and this is just like how so-and-so viewed the matter'.  There is not in us the power to determine true knowledge from speculation or from the knowledge of the philosophers and so on.