There is a Chasidic vertel (small vort) that goes like this –
It says in the beginning of parshas Noach,נח איש צדיק (בראשית ו:ט). Rashi there comments from Chazal, יש מרבותינו דורשים לשבח, ויש שדורשים לגנאי (some of our Rabbis interpret this in a positive way, that Noach was a tzadik in his weak generation, all the more so would he have been in a stronger one, while others interpret it negatively, that in his spiritually meager generation he was considered righteous, but in a better generation he would not have been).
So the Hasidic comment notes that Rashi only uses the term מרבותינו (of our rabbis) when mentioning the positive interpretation, and not with the negative one. Why, it continues? To show us that someone who interprets negatively is not worthy of being called one of our rabbis.
Litvish analysis and Fact check
Though Hasidim and neo-Hasidim like the TYH folk may like that, it doesn’t hold water. As seen in the beginning of פרשת ויקהל, which we just read, in שמות לה:ג, where Rashi cites a different machlokes, about fire on Shabbos. He also cites a first opinion with the expression מרבותינו there, while omitting it when afterward citing a second one, even though this not a case where one side is a positive interpretation and the other a negative one. Showing us that that just is the way of Rashi (perhaps, or should I say likely, to economize on verbiage and letters in the days before printing, when things were written by hand).
Feel-Good Chasidic Vertel Exposed as Baseless
From Musings of a Litvishe Yid:
Feel-Good Chasidic Vertel Exposed as Baseless
Saturday, March 22, 2025