Learning from history: the subtle difference
Happy Holidays!
In the first commandment, you give a set of considerations for the validity of revelation and add broader considerations – and within them you include the lesson from the unique history of the people of Israel, and even add the fulfillment of prophecies. From this you learn that we are unique.
Without a person in control of the spirit, you dedicate a chapter to the fact that it is impossible to really learn anything (metaphysical) from history (since it is so complex), and everyone learns from it what they want to get out of it.
What’s the difference? To say that we are unique and that the nations of the world “consciously and even more unconsciously,” as you put it, take notice of this – isn’t that studying metaphysics from history?
Why metaphysics? This uniqueness is a simple fact.
Beyond that, I also learn metaphysics (that there is a God) from physical facts. When I said that nothing can be learned – I meant specific ideological statements.
I understand.
But isn't the fact that there is a God considered a type of ideology?
Maybe I should ask – What do you define as ideology, what do you define as “specific ideological statements”?
Infidels and worshippers of foreign gods need prophetic revelations and other spells to incline their ear and listen to something.
Without these they would be sure that they are God. Like the belief of every common infidel.
This is not about dictionary definitions. You can learn from the Bible the existence of God and the giving of Torah, if you call it ideology or metaphysics - for good measure. My argument is that in general, you cannot learn anything specific from the Bible beyond the basic things that we all already know (and therefore there is no point in engaging with it, except for the specific value of Talmud Torah).
Rabbi, forgive me, but I asked about metaphysical facts *from history* and without any connection to the Bible.
You answered me here that learning from history about the uniqueness of the Jewish people is a simple fact, and that there are all sorts of things related to it that are not really related to simple facts (for example, you claim that the nations of the world consciously or unconsciously demand a different standard from Israel). You are actually claiming that we have a special status not just because we have a unique philosophy but because we are fundamentally unique, from what I understand, this is really metaphysics.
Then you also said that you learn from the physical facts that there is a God. And again, this is also a metaphysical conclusion in my understanding.
That's why I didn't understand why after that you claim that it is actually impossible to learn anything metaphysical from history (because anyone can learn from it whatever they want, so there's no point in it)?
“As a general rule, you can't learn anything specific from the Bible beyond the basic things that we all already know”
As I have already mentioned several times. The Toshva”p was necessary if only because otherwise the infidels would go and graze in foreign fields and the Torah would become extinct. This is what it means to keep the Torah. Chazal made sure that Jews kept the Torah despite the apostasy.
Forgive me, but with so many questions they are already getting mixed up for me, learning from the Bible or from history, especially since the question and answer in both cases are similar.
But I answered your question even if the wording was about the Bible (Don Minya): 1. There is no real metaphysics here, but rather a point of fact. The uniqueness of a people is not necessarily metaphysics. It can be rooted in its culture. By the way, I wrote this for Hadiya in the second book. 2. Just as one learns from physical facts about the theory, one can learn from historical facts about the theory (that there is a God). This is a fundamental and general statement. My statement dealt with specific claims (for or against Zionism, for example. The punishment and lessons from the Holocaust, etc.).
At least I was impressed by your words in the first book regarding the whole issue of anti-Semitism and the attitude of the nations of the world towards us, that you really, really see it as a metaphysical matter.
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