Q&A: Voices from the Past
Voices from the Past
Question
Soon they’ll invent a device that captures sound waves from the past that dispersed throughout the universe, and it will be possible to reconstruct the sounds from any place at any time. When they apply this technique to the period when the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they of course won’t hear the Giving of the Torah (because it never happened). When that happens, will you throw away your kippah and start eating untithed produce and orlah? Many blessings.
Answer
Maybe. Since I haven’t been blessed with prophecy like you, I’m not sure that this will happen. But even if it does, I’ll have to check how reliable that “coming-soon” invention is, and what its resolution is.
Eating untithed produce and orlah is not something done with many blessings or with few. About that it is said: “The one who blesses a greedy man spurns the Lord.”
Discussion on Answer
Of course. I and all the others you mentioned will start eating not only our hats, but also the hat of the Virgin Mary and the holy horse of the Prophet Muhammad, may his soul be bound up in the bond of life.
Rabbi, if as a result they would observe the commandments for their own sake, then already now they are not atheists.
They are. A person’s outlook is determined by his conscious beliefs. It is possible that they are not to blame for their atheism, because they are intellectually coerced.
The no less interesting question is what will happen if that same device, which will soon be invented, reveals that the revelation at Mount Sinai really did take place. Will you and the rest of the atheists start eating your hats too, even if only with a small blessing?