Q&A: A Contradiction in Be'er HaGolah
A Contradiction in Be'er HaGolah
Question
A. In the seventh well of Be'er HaGolah, the Maharal writes that everyone must be allowed to express his opinion, otherwise there will be no clarification of religion. It's a really beautiful passage that you also quote on the site.
But at the end of the sixth well, the Maharal sharply criticizes the book Me'or Einayim by Rabbi Azariah dei Rossi and writes that it is forbidden to read and distribute his books:
because this man uttered things against the supreme holy ones, and did not understand the plain meaning of their words, as he did in several of his chapters. Therefore this book is included among the external books, which it is forbidden to read. And every person faithful to the religion of the Torah of Moses, and who believes in the Written Torah and the Oral Torah, this book should be for him as something that may neither be seen nor found, and he should neither look at it nor examine it, neither with intellectual sight nor with physical sight.
How do you explain this contradiction?
B. In the seventh well, when the Maharal speaks about opponents of religion, he divides them into four types (briefly: a formerly religious person who left for convenience, a missionary, a zealot of another religion, a wicked king), and none of them is intellectual opposition or disagreement with religion. Is that because he was not familiar with such a reality, or because he did not consider that to be "opposition," or for some other reason?
Answer
A. I don't know. But from your description, I understand that he thought that book was nothing more than a misunderstanding, and not simply a different position. So as I understand it, there is no contradiction.
B. I don't know. It may be that he was not familiar with the phenomenon, since it really is a new one (at least as a phenomenon). Until modern times, the assumption was always that heresy was the result of evil inclination—either for one's appetite or out of spite. Or at most, someone like a child taken captive.