Seforim Blog excerpt from Dr. Sperber's , On the Relationship of Mitzvot Between Man and His Neighbor and Man and His Maker. From Chapter 4
Here we may also call attention to R. Meir Triebitz’s insightful analysis (in his introduction to R. Daniel Eidensohn’s Daas Torah: A Jewish Sourcebook [Jerusalem: 2005, 31–35]). He begins by noting that God commands us twice to study Torah: once in Deuteronomy 11:19, and again in Deuteronomy 4:9–11. He analyzes the differences between these two formulations in all their details – e.g., one in the plural and the other in the singular; one talks of teaching, the other telling; one focuses on parents to children, while the other lists three generations. He concludes that “the two verses which obligate us to learn the Torah actually refer to two types of study. One refers to the study of the legal part of Torah, and the other to the study of Torah’s theology. Each form of study is deemed a separate scholarly enterprise.” He characterizes these two forms of study as “legal” (i.e., halachic) study, and “faith” study, which he states “deals primarily with Aggadic parts of the Torah.” But for our purposes it is important to emphasize that both verses, that is to say both classes of study, require the student also to be a teacher, and to pass on his learning to future generations. Hence, Torah study has a social aspect too.
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ReplyDeleteDoes faith mean we are not really believers? What kind of faith is that? Is it blind faith and rootless faith and non-intellectual and irrational faith?
DeleteAlso, does the obligation of learning halacha require us to eschew our normal rational tendencies? I always thought halacha was the ultimate intellectual effort to understand truth, as truth, and not as faith. If we fail to understand, as happens very frequently, our logic dictates to us that if we have faith in the Torah, we will either eventually find out the logic we are now missing, or else we won't, but based on our other experienes with Torah, we assume that this part also is rational and logical and worthy of our acceptance of it. But this is not blind faith, but faith rooted in rationality and experience.
Kabbala is known as "the science of truth." Why is halacha also not the science of truth? All Torah is "Toras emes" and emes means truth, not blind faith but knowledge. Children begin with faith but adults come to understand.
When we learn halacha it also deepens our emunah and our commitment to halacha. We follow halacha because of our emunah in halacha. If it was intellectual , someone could come along with proofs which could undermine our commitment - this was Chava's problem - the na'chash intellectually proved that one could eat from the tree - she should have relied on emunah , not on intellect
DeleteAlan,
DeleteI don't know how emuna can be non-intellectual. That is a kind of faith that has nothing to do with the Torah. My two brothers have doctorates and we are all heavy in Torah. And I don't think we have any place in our lives for non-intellectual belief in anything related to Torah. I learned under Reb Aharon Kotler, Reb Moshe Feinstein, Reb Yaacov Kaminetsky and other Gedolim. I am comfortable that what I just said would make them happy.
First of all, most Jews descend from Jews who descend from Jews who were at Sinai, who left Egypt, who lived in Israel for thousands of years of mighty miracles. I have read the recent books about the wars in Israel. I can't believe that anybody can read these books without seeing mighty miracles. Now, if you want to say that maybe, possibly, all of these were just lucky, you can think what you want. But I don't think that such an attitude has anything to do with science or logic. And if you want to get to logical niitty gritty, you can refer to Einstein and the modern scientists who have no box or frame of reference for any reality. That is, you have to invent the box that is convenient for your thoughts. As for myself, I will stick with Torah and the mesorah I received from the earlier generations. The more I study the more truth I see and that is what it is all about. And what about our personal lives? Do we not see the Hand of HaShem? Do we need faith to imagine that HaShem is helping us constantly?
Not to quibble but isn't "Dr" Sperber really "Rabbi" Sperber?
ReplyDeleteIt is a quibble. The Seforim blog does not refer to him with any titles. He is a professor. In fact despite the fact he knows alot and I assume he has semicha - I have never heard him referred to as rabbi. The books I have that he authored simply list him as Daniel Sperber
Deleteso what is your point?
Daniel Sperber is the Rabbi of Menachem Zion Synagogue in the Old City (or according to Wikipedia he "leads the congregation".)
DeleteDovid, can you expand on your post. I am not sure I understood it correctly but are you saying that blind faith is alien to Torah? My Rebbe once said that blind faith is a Christian concept and that Jews don't subscribe to this. Emunah means faithful and committed to (not blind faith in something). Can you also expand on your sentence "Also, does the obligation of learning halacha require us to eschew our normal rational tendencies?" This question has bothered me for a long time and I would love if you could write a post on it - how does normal rational tendencies impact our learning and our piskei halachah?.
ReplyDeleteAvrohom,
ReplyDeleteI would love to write more about this, but the problem is this: I come from a family of very intellectual people. I once interviewed a mighty Hungarian mathematical genius who was staying in Monsey at a friend's house, who was also a major mathemetician. When the interview was over, my friend the professor and another professor who was invited to the interview told me they were badly shocked when they saw how utterly removed he was from clear rational thought and knowledge of the world. When we get into these conversations, we have to deal with the fact that the world of intellectual and scientific thought has nothing to do with intellectual steadiness. Let us mention Darwin. His theory destroys the entire hope of being moral. Brute wins and nice people lose. And yet, the major thinkers believe in Darwin and spout day and night about morality. I once did a job on those people that was written up in a woman's religious group's website. And somebody wrote a book and mentioned it how I had twisted this or that,without revealing my "twisting." So, the world is sick and removed from real intellectual thought. I was very lucky that from childhood I had huge battles about religion with almost everybody I saw, because in those days I was considered a speciman of the past. But other people, how do they cleanse themselves from the rubbish? So how can I talk to them and will they understand my position? But maybe I should do it. I want to know what my brother thinks.
In his book No Contest – the case against competition Alfie Kohn says that some biologists etc have encouraged the widespread conception that natural selection is tantamount to competition. ' Survival of the fittest ' – a termed coined by Herbert Spencer , not by Darwin- seemed to connote a struggle . Winners live to fight another day. In fact Alfie Kohn shows and Darwin agrees that natural selection occurs where there is cooperation among the same species and as well as those from different species. – It amazes me how educators think they can raise moral human beings by promoting competition and self- interest rather cooperation, altruism and doing things for the right reason.
DeleteAllan,
ReplyDeleteThe gemora encourages competition "the jealousy of the scholars increases wisdom."
Avrohom,
ReplyDeleteDoing a lot of thinking about your points. I have posted several videos on the topic from my youtube.com/mons5555 videos. I put a group of these videos dealing with intellectual truth science and Torah on my website at www.torahtimes.com. The first page coming up is a group of colorful pictures each representing a video on the post. Just click the picture and the video begins.