Q&A: Providence
Providence
Question
Good evening,
Question:
Rabbi Joseph Albo, in Sefer Ha-Ikkarim (4:21), describes one who is “swept away without justice” in this way:
"Or he went down into war and was swept away — this alludes to an accidental death that comes upon a person before his time and without prior sin, but rather because of a general decree: that anyone who enters a certain war will die."
1. Does Rabbi Joseph Albo reject what Maimonides says in the Guide for the Perplexed, Part III, chapter 17 (to the best of my memory), where he rules against the Talmud in tractate Chagigah 4b-5a that there is no death without sin?
2. Did Rabbi Joseph Albo draw a conclusion from the Talmudic passage that is opposite to Maimonides?
If the Rabbi could please give me sources for understanding Sefer Ha-Ikkarim,
Thank you very much, and may you be repaid with goodness.
Answer
This literature doesn’t really interest me, and I don’t deal with it. Certainly not with the question of who disagrees with whom and why. In matters of Jewish thought, a person is supposed to formulate his own position, not to clarify what Maimonides or Rabbi Joseph Albo wrote, and in this area even the Talmud has no authority. Of course, if there is an interesting argument, it is worth examining. But discussing who disagrees with whom seems to me really unimportant. In short, it isn’t all that important to study Jewish thought. What matters mainly is to think.
By the way, the Talmud in Chagigah says that there is one who is swept away without justice, and it even gives an example. And Rabbeinu Chananel there wrote that in murder (intentional murder), a person is swept away without justice. I’ve written about this more than once.