The tribe of Judah will not depart, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes.
Peace to the esteemed Rabbi and much respect.
Not that I used this verse to prove to you the correctness of the Torah’s statement about the Messiah, since there are various interpretations of each verse, as we know, but I would still like to ask you: Do you not believe in the coming of the Messiah? After all, even in the words of the prophets, various scenarios appear that hint at this, such as a man sitting under his own vine and fig tree, and no nation will lift up a sword against another nation, and as you know, there are other prophecies that speak of this. Even when God says that I have commanded them to give this land, and the Sages demanded that it was said to them, not to you, and based on this, that “they” are all already buried, they concluded that the resurrection of the dead is from the Torah.
I’m not asking the Honorable Rabbi what he thinks, I’m simply interested in why you don’t believe in the next world and its consequences, because if you doubt the next world, why even keep the commandments? And more ironically, if God created the world, why did He even give Torah? So that we would surrender to it in this world and that’s enough? Didn’t He breathe soul into us? Won’t it return to the stone from which it was quarried?
Hello. As you wrote, the words of the prophets are interpreted in many ways. For example, “all the days of your life” – for the ages. So such prophecies can also be interpreted in similar ways and no evidence should be brought from them.
Therefore, I have no position regarding the coming of the Messiah and the Hereafter. I simply do not know, and I am not convinced that this tradition has an ancestral home (from Sinai). If it is the product of the wisdom of the sages, then I do not see anything authoritative in it. Of course, I also do not know that it does not.
Regarding the observance of mitzvot, I will refer you to the words of Maimonides at the beginning of the 12th chapter of the Teshuvah:
Halacha A
Let no one say, “I am doing the commandments of the Torah and engaging in its wisdom so that I may receive all the blessings written in it or so that I may merit life in the world to come, and I will abstain from the transgressions that the Torah warns against so that I may be saved from the curses written in the Torah or so that I may not be cut off from life in the world to come.” It is not appropriate to worship God in this way, for one who worships in this way worships out of fear and not the virtue of the prophets or the virtue of the sages. And none worship God in this way except the people of the land and the women and the little ones who are educated to worship out of fear until their understanding increases and they worship out of love.
Halacha in
The one who works out of love engages in the Torah and the mitzvot and walks in the paths of wisdom not because of anything in the world, nor because of the fear of evil, nor in order to inherit goodness, but rather does the truth because it is truth and the end of goodness will come because of it. This virtue is a very great virtue and not every wise man is worthy of it. It is the virtue of our forefather Abraham, whom the Holy One, blessed be He, called “loved” because he did not work except out of love. It is the virtue that the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded through Moses, as it is said, “You shall love the Lord your God.” And when a person loves the Lord with the love that is due, he will immediately do all the mitzvot out of love.
I don’t know why God gave us the Torah. But apparently not for the sake of the world. Apparently this is the correct correction of the world.
As for the soul, it is certainly possible (and even probable in my opinion) that it will return to some kind of reactor, but I do not know what it is or what its nature is.
I am familiar with Maimonides' words on the subject. Thank you for the reference. I simply know (even if only a little) your logic and I admit that common sense is involved in it. Are you refusing to formulate a position on the subject because it does not seem logical to you? After all, if the world was created by the Creator, it was obviously created for a specific purpose, or are you claiming that common sense is not involved here?
This is not about being familiar with Maimonides. You made the claim that there is no point in worshipping G-d without redemption and redemption, and I disagree (and neither does Maimonides).
As I wrote, I have no position because I do not know whether this information came down from Sinai or not. There is a reasonable explanation (that the soul does not go to perdition) but it is difficult to draw conclusions from it. Precisely because it makes sense, then it is quite likely that the Sages determined this because of logic and not by virtue of tradition. But to conclude from logic that there will be redemption or redemption sounds too speculative to me. G-d works in all sorts of ways that I do not understand, and perhaps that is the case here as well.
I do agree with you in part, but I will try to rephrase my question. As far as man's free choice regarding doing good or evil (or alternatively, a mitzvah or a transgression), I think you agree with that, but isn't the basis of the Torah and the mitzvah entirely based on free choice and, as a result, reward and punishment?
Perhaps from a superficial perspective it seems as if without reward and punishment (or even redemption) there is no point in keeping the mitzvot, but I would still like you to try to address my question, thank you.
The work of the Lord is based on choice but not necessarily on reward and punishment. After all, I wrote you my opinion and the opinion of the Maimonides on the matter. What does this repetition over and over again add to us? I didn't understand what the question was.
I truly and sincerely want to know why you do not believe in the coming of the Messiah and so on. It is also written in the Book of Revelation: Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord, this after Elijah the prophet passed away (and these are the words of prophets, not sages), and on that day there will be one Jehovah and his name one, meaning that all of existence will be one with the Creator of the world as it was, is, and will be, and so on for many more to come. So I really wonder if you believe in the Creator of the world and his prophecies?
I've already explained what I had to explain.
Please answer me honestly, and this is not a critical, cynical or otherwise question, because of the fact that I have learned certain things from you I want to know, do you believe in G-d? And if so, is it the G-d of Abraham or the G-d of Einstein?
As for the question of whether I believe, you can find the answer here on the site.
The God of Abraham or Einstein, you must define what you mean. The God of Einstein certainly is not, since he does not impose commandments. Einstein probably did not believe in God in the personal sense at all.
But why does all this matter? If you are looking for a source of authority, leave me alone. If you learned something from me that convinced you, then why does it matter whether I am a heretic or not?
A complete heretic or a heretic according to the method of Chazal and Maimonides? From your books (and not from this website) I conclude that you do believe in God, I don't know if in Jehovah, the Holy Trinity or in Buddha, but you do believe in something. And if after all it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses, why do you ignore verses that are not even taken out of context, such as Ezekiel 17:1-12 (the so-called vision of the dry bones), Isaiah 21:19 – Your dead will live, O you who have been destroyed, awaken and rejoice, O you who dwell in the dust, etc., Daniel 12:2 and many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awaken, some to eternal life and some to shame and everlasting contempt, etc.
And the Lord will return Your God will restore you and have mercy on you, and will turn and gather you from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are in the uttermost part of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you and from there he will take you. And the Lord will bring you back. Your God to the land which your fathers inherited and you shall inherit it, and He will do you good and multiply you more than your fathers. Whether this is a parable or not, we see that it has not been better for us than for our fathers as of this day after the gathering, and there shall come forth a rod from the root of Jesse… and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding… and he shall judge the poor with righteousness… and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips in the day of evil… And the wolf shall lie down with the lamb, and the leopard with the kid. And there shall be in that day the root of Jesse, which shall stand to stir up the peoples, to whom the nations shall seek, and his resting place shall be glorious. What is the meaning, and he shall judge the poor with righteousness, and in Ezekiel and David my servant shall be their prince for ever? And what of Ecclesiastes, and the dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it? And what of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of whom it is said, that they shall be gathered unto their people.
I greatly appreciate and respect you, Rabbi Avraham, but I know you as an investigative personality who does not stop halfway, so why ignore everything written, and as is your habit, simply investigate instead of simply saying I do not know (which is not at all appropriate to your methods), so that the question really arises for me, has the honorable Rabbi Avraham, from whom I learned faith, among other things, lost his faith?
First, I am puzzled by someone who believes in the God of Abraham and writes the name with his letters (Yak”ek B”a). Second, I have already explained that the verses of the Bible and the Prophet are interpreted in all sorts of different and strange ways and therefore it is difficult to draw conclusions from them (which is why I also do not like and do not see much value in studying them).
All of your sources must be answered in the same way, and most of them are obscure, sealed and contradictory (in Ecclesiastes the Sages already emphasized this). And our rabbis have already said about this: Learn your tongue to say I do not know. What's more, these questions do not seem too significant to me and I do not see a way to investigate and reach a conclusion about them.
The honorable Rabbi has indeed lost his once innocent faith and now has slightly different beliefs. That is all. But all of this is mere curiosity (for me personally) and therefore I find no point in discussing it.
I accepted. I will not bother your honor any further except for two questions: Do your books arguing against atheism still have value in your eyes? And do you define yourself as a theist?
Should we accept the rabbi's silence as consent?
I would like to ask for forgiveness from the rabbi if he thinks I have crossed over into personal lines and nothing more, but I would ask you to try to answer my question, please.
Throughout the entire Bible, and none of you have ever seen a specific punishment for certain people for actions they have committed, sometimes we have even seen it for an entire generation, such as in the flood with Noah and so on and so forth, my question is if there really was a specific punishment, does that mean that God changed His policy? What about those atheists who, unfortunately, curse the name of God and mock faith and believers and commit crimes on purpose and spend their entire lives disrespecting the Torah, the Creator and faith? What about a person who murders for his own pleasure or even his livelihood, or even like ISIS and the like, is there no justice in creation? Will all of these not be punished? Will the murderer not be brought to justice? And won't the mocking and disparaging atheist receive a slap of truth in the cheek?
First, I must rebuke you for calling a rabbi an atheist, who doubts whether he even believes in God. I object to that. A non-believer does not deserve to be called a rabbi.
To your question, I have already explained my opinion here in the past that God probably does not intervene in the world, at least in our generation. But even without that, the question of who is righteous and who is evil to Him is an ancient question, and it was raised both in times when He did intervene and by people who think that He intervenes in our day. And that too must be answered (i.e. even without my assumption that He does not intervene).
The fact that He allows man a choice means that people can act as they decide, and there is no immediate response that denies them this. There is also physical evil in the world, and not just human, and there you could ask more seriously. Why are there tsunamis, epidemics, and the like. And I have already answered that here, too, that in my opinion, God has decided that the world will be governed by fixed laws, and these laws have inevitable side effects, some of which are bad. It is possible that there is no system of laws that will do exactly the same thing (since that is what God wants), but without the bad side effects. Intervention that locally prevents a bad outcome every time is a disruption to the conduct according to the laws, and therefore this was not done either.
Again, I apologize, I don't quite understand how to digest the fact that you don't believe/think that the sages' interpretations of prophecies and the Torah are not fully authentic, in light of the fact that you have written books concerning the laws of sermons and Talmudic logic, etc., I hope you don't misunderstand me.
But I don't necessarily mean in general terms, but rather in detail, as I mentioned above, regarding heretics, murderers, offenders, instigators like the Freedom and True Knowledge website, etc., etc., if they don't receive their punishment in this world, in your opinion, justice will not be done at the end of the day?
I deleted several messages that were written in inappropriate language and/or contained inappropriate references (not to me).
I wrote books that deal with the laws of logic and midrash because I try to understand these sources as part of studying Torah. This does not mean that the sages were always right or that they did not make mistakes.
As for whether justice will be done or not, in this world or the next, I do not know.
Thank you, Your Honor, for your consideration. I would like to mention that I have great respect for you.
May we merit complete redemption.
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