Defending Rashi

Several stories explain Rav Yehoshua's practice of defending Rashi's position, and how he came to author Maginei Shlomo.

Rav Meir, the father of Rav Shabsai Cohen, the famed mechaber of the Shach on Shulchan Aruch, studied Gemara together with Rav Yehoshua. They agreed that when they studied a new sugya they would refrain from consulting the commentaries of Rashi and the Tosfos, and each would try to arrive at his own understanding of the topic. Invariably, when they compared their understanding, Rav Meir's opinion was consistent with the comments of the Tosfos, whereas Rav Yehoshua's was always in accordance with Rashi. And so Rav Yehoshua would defend Rashi's position, which was his own as well, against the questions of the Tosfos.

As a reward for his diligence and alacrity in defending Rashi, his grandson would relate, Rav Yehoshua once told his students that Rashi himself appeared to him in a vision and congratulated him, saying, "Happy is your lot and portion in the Next World for defending me against those ferocious lions, the Tosfos."