A question about the attitude towards the words of the sages
In the SD
Hello Rabbi, I read the Rabbi’s article on labeling, etc., I understood the Rabbi’s approach that everything needs to be examined with reason and we cannot act like robots, meaning that if I believe something is wrong, nothing will help and I will continue to believe that it is wrong, and therefore everything should be open to discussion. I definitely agree with this and think that our religious world today is moving towards acceptance because it is “Da’at Torah” without any justification and that needs to change.
I did want to ask, what weight does the Rabbi give to the words of the Sages? It seems from the Rabbi’s words that there is no significance to the Sages saying what they said, but only the actual words. After all, there are all sorts of cases. Sometimes I think something is 100 percent wrong and sometimes not. In all cases, no. Is there any weight to the Sages saying what they said, or is it just a statement that I need to examine and if I am inclined to believe it is wrong, I will reject it? And if so, what value does our tradition have? It is true that there can be mistakes, but this is actually our only way to receive the word of God, because through the Bible we have no way to receive practical laws. That is, according to the rabbi, all the words of the sages are a sequence of recommendations that I can choose whether to accept or not (and not in the formal sense). In my opinion, we should also give important weight to tradition, to the fact that things have been passed down through tradition. It is true that mistakes can occur, and indeed if we find mistakes, then they are mistakes, but the starting point should be that things are correct because of tradition. After all, if we give no weight to tradition, then the Toshab’a has no meaning, and for me, this is almost the only way that G-d has given me to understand His words, and without it, we are without Torah (and this is not a threat, it is simply an attempt to understand whether G-d actually created a world without Torah? And does that make sense?). Thank you very much.
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And how do I know what comes from Sinai?
PS: Does the meaning of these words mean that there is no Oral Torah?
To Elisha: The meaning is that we do not know exactly what from the Oral Torah originated in the Toshbin that came to Moses our Rabbi from the mouth of the hero at Sinai and what was added from opinion and the like over the generations.
There is a Toshva, but what came from Sinai is quite limited. The dimensions of the sermon (in some sense. Detailed in the second book in the Talmudic Logic series), word interpretations, some halakhic texts and that's more or less it. The rest has developed over the generations, and if it is an authorized institution then it has halakhic authority by virtue of "La Tesur" and must be obeyed.
And what about laws and opinions that are known to contain errors (scientific, or those that are known not to have existed during the Second Temple period)?
Do they have authority? Is the authority here merely formal? That is, the sages received the authority from the people.
And how should a person who thinks that a certain law contains an error while he is observing it relate to these laws? After all, he does not believe in its correctness.
Hello David.
If there is a rule that is based on a scientific error, in my opinion it is null and void. I am talking about a situation where it was an error from the beginning, not that the situation has changed. In such a situation, you will not correct it.
Thanks for the quick reply.
I'll just clarify that I'm not referring to a situation that has changed, but rather to a certain rule that was implemented differently during the Second Temple period (according to historical and archaeological sources). Which probably indicates an error in the tradition.
Is the situation similar to a scientific error here in your opinion?
And if not, how should a person who thinks that a mistake has been made relate to this when fulfilling the mitzvah?
I'm not sure I understood the question. What do you mean by what to do if it turns out that some tools in the Second Temple did something different than we do today? Errors in tradition don't matter if the latest version has received an authoritative seal (Sanhedrin or Talmud).
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