Friday 10 July 2009

To Take Hazal at their word - or is there a Hidden Agenda?

Pursuant to a thread on Avoda re: Midrashim. As I like to say:
Midrashim are true but not always to be taken as LITERALLY True!
In other words [as I stated]:
Actually I think Hazal were doing political comments regarding their own time and used proxies just like Gulliver [lhavdil]
Thus:
  • Attacks on Esav/Edom were frequently veiled attacks on Rome
  • And attacks on Sodom were frequently veiled attacks against the hedonisitc Hellenic culture.
And the need for the veil? So that the predominant civilization would not reek vengence upon the Jews for criticising the excesses of the "Emperors without Clothes

KT
RRW

3 comments:

JJ said...

I would say that it is pretty obvious but in these days...

Obviously the Miamonidean approach is favoured by both commenter and blogger

Rabbi R Wolpoe said...

I don't Think the average Yid knows to take these Aggadic comments as similes or metaphors

How many Teachers Teach this in Jewish Day Schools?
High Schools?
Yeshivos

Keep Spreading the Word
RRW

JJ said...

good point - my daughter has come home from school thinking that various midrashim are true (b/c that is how it is taught at her school) - my boys (more MO school than daughter) have had the good fortune of a teacher who would emphasize pshat and while she appreciated the stories my boys would bring in from "the little midrash says" she also gave it context

incidentally, the little midrash says books are fantastic fro generating an interest in tanach - and i am not sure a focus on pshat would get the same results from my kids