Avodah Mailing List

Volume 03 : Number 145

Thursday, July 29 1999

• Re: allegory
• Re: allegory

On Thu, 29 Jul 1999, Moshe Feldman wrote:

> 
> You consistently make the same mistake.  No one says that chazal
> allegorized the mabul.  They had no reason to.  Neither, for that
> matter, did Rambam have any reason to allegorize the mabul.  The
> question arises only in the modern day because of scientific
> discoveries. 
> 

So Chazal werre wrong? Or ignorant? Or uninformed?

YGB

Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer
Cong. Bais Tefila, 3555 W. Peterson Ave., Chicago, IL, 60659
ygb@aishdas.org, http://www.aishdas.org/baistefila

On Thu, 29 Jul 1999, Micha Berger wrote:

> To rephrase Moshe Feldman's reply with my own twist: The question isn't
> whether or not Chazal deemed the mabul to be allegory. It's whether they
> would allegorize a story that contradicts evidence, or would they
> resolve the problem by invoking more nissim. (All this assuming the
> person considers the evidence conclusive). If they would in principle,
> and you think the mabul qualifies by today's evidence, then you'd have a
> right to contradict Chazal. No? 
> 

Resounding no.

That would mean that Chazal were no more certain about the Torah's truth
then we are. They only assumed it to be true because they were not
enlightened by science as we are. But they were wrong.

Do you realize the meaning and ramifications of such a perspective?!


YGB

Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer
Cong. Bais Tefila, 3555 W. Peterson Ave., Chicago, IL, 60659
ygb@aishdas.org, http://www.aishdas.org/baistefila

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