Q&A: A Question Left Open from the Conference
A Question Left Open from the Conference
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I was at the conference yesterday, and in my opinion it was really, really successful.
Rabbi Jungster asked a question, and I didn’t hear your response to it. He said that you wrote that it is very puzzling that Maimonides holds that a wicked person dies immediately because of his sin, and he argues that the puzzlement is about you: how could you think that Maimonides really thought that? He says this is a sign of disrespect toward the great sages. What do you have to answer to that?
Answer
I have nothing to answer, and I don’t see what the difficulty is. I claim that what is written there is plainly incorrect. If someone has a brilliant explanation of what Maimonides meant—good for him. He can explain that Maimonides meant something else, and he will save Maimonides from the criticism. I did not criticize Maimonides, but rather the claim that is written there, and through it the sense that statements like these are binding on all of us. By the way, I explained this in my answer there at the end.