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Accepting tradition in light of the contradictions towards reality

שו”תCategory: faithAccepting tradition in light of the contradictions towards reality
asked 8 years ago

Hello Rabbi,
The Rabbi in the notebooks claims that tradition can be trusted if the content conveyed by it makes sense and the witnesses are trustworthy. That’s a big deal.
The simple explanation.
But in the past, in moral Judaism, even if we start from a logical assumption, it will not match reality and therefore must be rejected.
For example, we know today that the world was created billions of years ago and that man was created through an evolutionary process, while the Torah says otherwise.
The Torah says, for example, about the flood, and in our time we know that this is not true. There is no geological evidence for the case.
Is tradition in these and similar cases really like a counterfeit bill? And are we supposed to reject it?
Isn’t that right?


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0 Answers
מיכי Staff answered 8 years ago
That’s not what I claimed. I claim that the tradition is reasonable and that it joins the philosophical belief. As for your questions, we are counting the creation of man and what was before that is unknown to me. Also regarding the flood, I have not examined the geology and I do not know what was supposed to remain. In any case, the Torah is not concerned with scientific and historical facts, and therefore I do not see these things as a very acute problem. And even if there is a problem with these examples, it is not enough to turn the tradition into a counterfeit bill. At most, there are a few details that are not accurate in it. This can happen in any tradition.

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קובי replied 8 years ago

1. When does the Rabbi mention the creation of man at what point in evolution?

2. This also happens in the Toshab.
In the written Torah it is written an eye for an eye. And the Toshab is a gift of money.
What does the Rabbi think about this tradition? Here the bill is certainly counterfeit.

Moishbb replied 8 years ago

Kobi
It's amazing to see a person who comes to ask questions
and doesn't bother to do a simple search on the site
These topics have been discussed dozens of times
A little frustrating

מיכי Staff replied 8 years ago

1. I don't know.
2. Indeed, things have already been discussed here more than once. As a rule, there is a tradition of swearing. If you don't accept it, then no. This is your assumption and of course the conclusion is derived from it. That's all. Regarding an eye for an eye, there is a gaz and it joins the simple as an additional layer and does not replace it. I must say that I have seen better questions.

M replied 8 years ago

This is not the main issue, but it is worth knowing – There is also evidence of a local flood in the Mesopotamian region (7500 BCE). A book was published about this called “Noah's Flood” (published by Am Oved, I believe) that discusses this thesis, the authors are all academics, showing that in the past the Black Sea overflowed its banks and flooded entire settlements, according to the authors, the remains of these settlements fled to Europe, Mesopotamia and the rest of Asia, and hence the myth of the flood known to most of the world.

A few years after the book was published, as part of a study conducted in the Black Sea, the remains of settlements that had been established in it before the flood were found in its center. To the best of my knowledge, their research is considered reliable (I am not aware of any significant criticisms written about its basic thesis).
There are also midrashim in Hazal that explicitly imply that the flood was local.

י.ד. replied 8 years ago

Maimonides in Morah Nevuchim 1, Chapter 2 explains that to be human is to know the intellect, as opposed to demons like the mafia and criminals who do not live according to the intellect but as mere savages. According to this, the creation of man is not in the genetic sense a Homo sapiens who is able to speak and whose mating with apes does not create viable creatures, but when one of those Homo sapiens who roamed the area acquired a mind capable of observing intellect and establishing a moral law according to them. They also happened to be called Adam.

The Mishnah also speaks of the Adni Hasade (N and M are interchangeable in Aramaic, and if so, it means Adams of the field) as human beings who do not belong to the settlement. There is also a description of them in Job. It seems that in their time there were still Homo sapiens who roamed the area with a hunter-gatherer culture who did not accept the intellect of the settlement and who were not actually human.

Since the Torah is concerned with humans who are endowed with intelligence, the Torah has no interest in those lords of the field or demons who filled the earth with the genetic baggage of Homo sapiens and the ability to speak. The Torah is concerned with people with the ability to observe intelligence and when the first Adam appeared 5700 years ago, the Torah began. Until then, monkeys with intelligence?

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