Q&A: Claims of Yaron Yadan
Claims of Yaron Yadan
Question
Is there anything in Yaron Yadan’s claims that’s worth addressing? Are you familiar with his claims in broad terms? Have you ever looked at what he writes?
I just saw a short video of his that popped up for me online, so I did a bit of digging. And I saw that people wrote a 300-page document against him explaining in detail all his mistakes. I read the beginning and saw that, broadly speaking, the claims are based on distortions, misunderstandings, and so on.
Obviously, claims about the Sages are unnecessary, because nobody thinks they’re immune to mistakes, so his questions about them don’t even get off the ground.
What he claims about the Torah is more threatening at the level of the attack itself (regardless of the content of the questions). Do you think there is anything there that is unequivocal enough to justify some conclusion about the source of the Torah?
I’m deliberately asking you, Rabbi, because I’ve gotten the impression that you are very, very critical and loyal to the truth, and willing to accept even not especially popular views as long as you think they are true—which is not something one finds much of around here.
Answer
- Some of his questions are definitely good questions.
- I’m not familiar enough with what he says to offer a general opinion.
- Nobody thinks that the Sages and the medieval authorities are immune to error? You’re kidding me. An overwhelming majority of rabbis think that, and certainly a great many ordinary people do too. You’re right that this is a mistake, but it is a very common one.
- There’s a video of a debate I had with him, if you’d like to watch it.
Discussion on Answer
Document?
Could you please link to the document?
Thanks