I will seek an answer from the Divine, may it guide me in upright paths and deliver us from the mouth of falsehood and the deceitful tongue. Teach me, O Lord, your ways, and I will walk in your truth. May my heart be united to fear Your name, and may You send forth Your light and Your truth to guide me, that they may lead me and enable me to speak words in line with Your will. Remove from me disgrace and contempt, for I have kept Your testimonies.
Even when princes sit together and speak against me, Your servant meditates on Your statutes. So I will not be ashamed, for I do not deviate from the path that our Sages, the masters of Mishnah, Talmud, true Midrashim, and the decisive halakhic authorities, have taught us to follow. For all the house of Israel relies on them, for they are the bearers of true tradition, having received it from Moses at Sinai, encompassing the entirety and details of the Torah.
Moses stood with them for forty days and forty nights, and he transmitted it to Joshua, and Joshua to the elders, as stated in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers). A) And it is our sacred obligation to follow in their footsteps in every matter that emerges for judgment, regarding all issues of prohibition and permission, impurity and purity, invalidation and validity. And especially regarding the matter of the unique unity of the Almighty, which is the great foundation, and after that the acceptance of all the commandments, and how to perform them as stated by the Tanna (early rabbinic sage) of blessed memory, "Why does the recitation of the Shema precede 'Vehaya Im Shamoa,' etc.!" And any author of a book who comes to add or subtract from their teachings, and especially to deviate us from the belief in the unity of the Holy One, according to the tradition of our Sages, the authors of the Mishnah and the Talmud.
It is not heeded, and even if he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth, we do not turn away from following the Lord our God according to the tradition of our Sages, the authors of the Mishnah and the Talmud, and the subsequent legal decisors who follow in their footsteps. Even if a heavenly voice were to proclaim, we do not pay attention to it, as stated by Rabbi Yehoshua, "We do not pay attention to a heavenly voice, for the Torah is not in heaven."