A wise man in the world
Hello,
Can a rabbi be so learned that he also knows science or medicine but only through Torah study? Is it possible for him to know anatomy or the law of gravity or the Pythagorean theorem or geometry without ever having read any medical books? Do you believe in stories like those told about the Chazon Ish who was visited by a doctor who did not know in this case how to dissect the patient’s brain and the Chazon Ish drew for him exactly how to dissect it, and they say that the Chazon Ish never read any medical books? And if you don’t believe it, are all the people who tell this story liars? I’ve seen it written in biographies and books about the Chazon, why would they lie?
Discover more from הרב מיכאל אברהם
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Regarding the Chazo’a, there is evidence that I once saw that he read medical books while still in Europe. Beyond that, you should know that in a community of ignorant people there is a tendency to overestimate any shred of education. I have experienced this more than once in Bnei Brak, where anyone who can read English and keeps a book by a non-Jewish thinker by their bedside is considered a great intellectual. If there is a doctor, he is one of the greatest scientists, and so on. Incidentally, the same applies to statements by secular people, or simply ba’al-batim, about someone being a “great scholar” (= knows how to read Rashi and once even quoted a passage from Abarbanel). So I would treat such evidence with limited liability. Usually, it is not about lies, but ignorance, and if you also consider the “educational benefit” of such claims, then it is really tempting to write such claims in hagiography books about the greats of the ages.
Discover more from הרב מיכאל אברהם
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
You are invited to read the online newsletter ‘Netfi Shfiyot’ by Rabbi David Bloch. And to see testimony from someone who was in the room with the prophet at the time [studied with him regularly] when they asked about the surgery, not the type or the parts of it… just spouting nonsense’ that there were none and not even a single example… they just made up a story…
And what is interesting is that this is not an explanation but testimony from the Rosh Yeshiva of Sloboda [then still the ruler”a] zt”l who was in the room at the time, and later was a member of Rabbi David Blochæ
Do you remember which Netflix insanity this was on? I found the Google group but couldn't locate the specific leaflet where it was mentioned.
We have what may be the picture the Chazon Ish drew:
https://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=21194&pgnum=504
From the actual letter (it is difficult to read) it looks like it was written to the patient to show to the doctor, not the doctor himself.
(Please show this to the following as his opinion on this)
So it looks like a patient asked the Chazon Ish for advice and the Chazon Ish gave advice (lav davka good advice.)
We don't know if the doctor took the advice, and if he did, we don't know how it ended.
Leave a Reply
Please login or Register to submit your answer
