I read:
As Chazal have said, there are six hundred thousand interpretations of every verse of Torah. [Rabbi Shraga Silverstein, Shemirat Lashon I, The Gate of Torah 1:9]
Where does Chazal say that?
I read:
As Chazal have said, there are six hundred thousand interpretations of every verse of Torah. [Rabbi Shraga Silverstein, Shemirat Lashon I, The Gate of Torah 1:9]
Where does Chazal say that?
The Gemara in Brachos 58a writes:
וְאָמַר רַב הַמְנוּנָא: הָרוֹאֶה אוּכְלוּסֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, אוֹמֵר: ״בָּרוּךְ … חֲכַם הָרָזִים״. אוּכְלוּסֵי גּוֹיִם, אוֹמֵר: ״בּוֹשָׁה אִמְּכֶם וְגוֹ׳״.
And Rav Hamnuna said: One who sees multitudes of Israel, six hundred thousand Jews, recites: Blessed…Who knows all secrets. One who sees multitudes of gentiles recites: “Your mother shall be sore ashamed, she that bore you shall be confounded; behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert” (Jeremiah 50:12). (Sefaria translation)
The Maharsha in Chiddushei Aggados on the daf explains as follows:
חכם הרזים כו'. למאי דמסיק דאין אוכלוסא פחות מס' רבוא יש בהן ג"כ ששים רבוא דעות מחולקין והוא כלל כל הדעות שע"כ נתנה התורה לס' רבוא במדבר להיות התורה כלולה מכל דעה וחכמה ואין להוסיף עליה ומה שאחז"ל כל מה שמחדש כל חכם בדורו מסיני הוא לפי שזה הדבר כבר היה בדעת אחת מאותן ששים רבוא שהיו בסיני כי אי איפשר שיהיה עוד דעת אחרת על ששים רבוא וק"ל׃
'Who knows all the secrets etc.' - According to that which we conclude that there isn't a multitude if it is less than 600,000, there is in them also 600,000 differing opinions, which includes all opinions. For that's why the Torah was distributed to the 600,000 (people) in the desert to be an all-inclusive Torah from every opinion and wisdom, and do not add to it; as Chazal say, everything that each sage is mechadeish (i.e. comes up with a novel Torah thought) in his generation is from Sinai, for this thing is already according to the mind of one of those 600,000 who were in Sinai, because it is impossible for there to be more opinions than that of the (original) 600,000.