Originally published 1/25/08, 3:09 PM, Eastern Daylight Time
Dear Readers:
"Yediah" quotes the Rambam re: aggedeta. Yet, this same principle may be applied in all kinds of situations - Namely that at times being naively literal makes the Torah read as silly and similarly being a mocker/scoffer and taking the Torah to be also silly albeit by means of rejection also demonstrates the lack of wisdom.
Only the wise realize that the Aggedita [and other Torah passages] are neither meant to be overly literal nor downright absurd, but are actually communicating profound truths that require reading between the lines.
Some Fundamentalists [mostly on the right but not necessarily so] are K'sillim- fools. Some cynics [mostly on the left but not always] are heretics [kof'rim] masquerading as morally superior somehow.
While those who are mattunim badin - who patiently judge the requisite passages through the lens of intelligent analysis w/o naivite and also without cynicsm will arrive at the underlying truth.
Read More:
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Kol Tuv / Best Regards,
RabbiRichWolpoe@Gmail.com
Dear Readers:
"Yediah" quotes the Rambam re: aggedeta. Yet, this same principle may be applied in all kinds of situations - Namely that at times being naively literal makes the Torah read as silly and similarly being a mocker/scoffer and taking the Torah to be also silly albeit by means of rejection also demonstrates the lack of wisdom.
Only the wise realize that the Aggedita [and other Torah passages] are neither meant to be overly literal nor downright absurd, but are actually communicating profound truths that require reading between the lines.
Some Fundamentalists [mostly on the right but not necessarily so] are K'sillim- fools. Some cynics [mostly on the left but not always] are heretics [kof'rim] masquerading as morally superior somehow.
While those who are mattunim badin - who patiently judge the requisite passages through the lens of intelligent analysis w/o naivite and also without cynicsm will arrive at the underlying truth.
Read More:
Having introduced the literalist groups, the fundamentalists who shame the Torah with their ignorance and the mockers who jump to conclusions and accuse the rabbis of being ignoramuses,
http://yediah.blogspot.com/2008/01/rambam-on-aggadeta -correct-approach.html
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Kol Tuv / Best Regards,
RabbiRichWolpoe@Gmail.com
3 comments:
One can be among the "mattunim badin", and patiently look for reasonable explanations for statements by the rabbis, spend years and years doing this, poring through commentary, asking one talmid chacham after the next, and still come up dissatisfied, feeling that what one is seeing is anything more than elaborate sophistry.
For example, how do you reconcile even the most liberal understanding of the issur of bal tosef with the rabbinic decision to add vetzivanu to the bracha for lighting Chanukah candles? Was there ever a clearer example of tosef?
Just because lighting candles was instituted by the Sanhedrin, and because the Sanhedrin were the halachic authority of that period, doesn't justify saying that the commandments by Sanhedrin are equivalent to commandments from Hashem. A mitzvah derabbanan is a mitzvah derabbanan. Breaking down the barrier in definitions between derabbanan and deraita opens up a pandora's box of hazards that cannot help but lead to the overstepping of rabbinic authority.
Furthermore, giving one's trust to rabbis to make these kinds of analyses without error is not something an intelligent person does lightly. Their decisions have a huge impact on how a Jew lives his everyday life. In the real world, trust is something that has to be earned. In the face of bizarre, anomalous, and counterintuitive rabbinic pronouncements, some measure of doubt is reasonable.
Given this, rabbis have failed to account for the need to prove themselves to those who have critical reasoning ability and instead say: have faith in the rabbis.
We know from history the danger produced by other religions and cults taking this very same approach to faith in human clerics.
Yet, in an area where there should be room for reasonable doubts, no such doubts are tolerated by the religion. Any Jew who has an inclination towards Torah, but who understands the value of critical reasoning will be frustrated by the inability of the system and its adherents to accept him and his doubts. The doubter who voices his doubts is excluded and shunned.
It is precisely this frustration and exclusion that leads to mockery and other forms of loud venting aimed at those who are responsible for the direction that Torah has taken.
Rabbis have to try harder to remember that we live in an age of hester panim. There are no overt miracles. Doubts are reasonable, and some reasonable accommodation has to be made in the Orthodox system for the intelligent doubters, otherwise you will lose them to a system that welcomes them -- doubts and all.
If Orthodoxy is fine with pushing away intelligent educated Jews who ask difficult questions, and is unwilling to try to understand their frustrations, then that attitude is deserving of mockery and derision. Telling people to sit and learn Torah for a lifetime, as a way to get answers to their questions, is ridiculous. We each have only one lifetime, and an intelligent person will want to see a reasonable amount of evidence that this is a good thing to do before deciding to spend a lifetime investigating whether rabbis have gotten it right or not. The decision to spend one's life this way is a big one; on the order of choosing a career or a mate or moving to another country. Expecting people to choose this religion over another or over no religion without adequate evidence to support that decision is a very silly expectation in the eyes of many people. The inability to recognize these facts, and the desire to call the mockers "fools" as a result, makes rabbis look all the more foolish and all the more deserving of mockery.
Yout points are well taken and, perhaps, show the inherent difficulty in kiruv. Torah is inherently complex and demands many years of study to understand its basic structure. As you point out, this presents an obvious problem for what critical thinker would apply this time without first a detemination that this effort has value -- even the determination of the value demands the time first. (In something like medicine, the results demonstrate that the doctor knows what he/she is talking about even as the layman may have no idea of what is being said or its value. In Torah we do not have the quantifiable result that the system works. So there is little proof to accept the expert, i.e. that the expert's vision of reality is correct.) The result is that kiruv has to simplify Torah to make it palatable to the masses. The result is a simplistic vision of Torah which now becomes the standard. The simplistic vision, in turn, further alienates the critical thinker who know believes that these simplistic -- easily able to be discarded supposed --reasons are taken as Torah and thus the baby is thrown out with the bathwater.
Your point about tzivanu is on point. At the centre of Orthodox Judaism is a belief in Torah She'b'al Peh, the Oral Law, which inherently necessitates human involvement in the process. This has always been a problem for various individuals. Acceptance of God's Word is one thing. What Orthodoxy contends is that it is God's decree that human beings should follow human development of the Word according to a set system. The point is that the system includes human involvement and specifically within a certain parameter which, from the standpoint of critical reasoning that is not based on the system, may make no sense. So what to do? So the idea of ruach hakodesh, a Divine inspiration, is presented to explain why we may believe these rabbis for that type of simplistic argument can be bought by the masses. Believe it or not, but the argument can be comprehended. What is lost is the difficult issue of definition that demands study of the principles. What is lost is the sophistication of Torah. In its place is simplicity. That is sadly the situation we are in today.
I don't have an answer to the dilemma. I recognize that it is hard to tell someone to learn for years to learn the language of Torah so you can understand the explanation of why the system has value. How can you expect someone to put in that effort without a guaranteed result? But the answer is not in simplifying Torah to make it comprehendable to someone without Torah knowledge for thereby the real meat of Torah is lost. Perhaps what is necessary is simplicity at first but then the person, already into it because of the simple reasons, is taught the real complexity. The problem with that is the person, upon seeing the fraility of the simple, may just give it up before reaching the knowledge of the complex. So not only do we teach the simplicity, we hide the true complexity thinking that if the person meets the true emet of Torah, he/she will drop everything. That is a terrible statement about Torah. It also ensures the continuation of the simple -- and the loss of true Torah.
Rabbi Ben Hecht
It's fine to say that God intended for humans to have some degree of involvement, but it's disingenuous to portray this involvement as being limited. Telling us that there is a distinction between deraita and derabbanan, and that this distinction is important, tells us that human involvement has limits.
But if humans now have the power to put any words in God's mouth, and label anything as a commandment from God, then there are no limits to human involvement.
The Rabbis have essentially created a system that takes the genie's offer of a wish to wish for more wishes. They have cheated God out of His sovereignty.
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