Toras Avraham (Toras HaSeichel HaEnushi #2): … Intellect (seichel) which characterizes man is not simply a means of knowing and understanding data. In fact the intellect is a moral faculty to know what is truly straight. G d created man with this faculty in order to teach him the path of life. Therefore it is obligatory for man to use it to know what is right and wrong and not to distort his straightness and wholesomeness. It enables him to be a moral judge to understand things in full. Thus man is obligated to keep things which he knows are right - as well as that which he has been commanded directly by G d. Both obligation serve to direct him properly…
Rabbeinu Nissim Gaon (Introduction to Talmud): The reason that there is punishment for activities not specifically commanded is because all those Mitzvos which are derived from commonsense are obligated on everyone from the day that G-d first created Adom HaRishon. Not only him but also all his descendants afterwards for all generations.
Rambam (Moreh Nevuchim 3:17): A person is rewarded for any good deed and punished for sin - even though these activities were not commanded by a prophet. This is because a person is held accountable for those things which are dictated by commonsense.
Ramban (Bereishis 6:13): The generation of the flood was punished for theft because it was an obvious sin. Our Sages (Sanhedrin 108a) say that this sin sealed their fate. That is because it was commonsense that it was a sin, there was no need for a prophets to warn them. Furthermore it was evil to both heaven and man.
Maybe it's something in the water but common sense is in short supply today.
ReplyDeleteThe number of times I've heard "You can only do what 'the Gedolim' tell you or if it's in a sefer, don't use common sense because it might go against the Torah!"...
Left is right and right is left. The newspeak is part of the chareidi mentality, although the Yerushalmi already rejected the Sifri which created this double-think
DeleteWow Black and white thinking!
DeleteSometimes commonsense is relevant and othertimes it isn't
KA you don't understand the Yerushalmi or are delibrtately distorting it
It is entirely possible - but it is also entirely possible that I do understand it. If one knows that the BD is wrong, either in error or b'zadon, one is not obligated to listen to them. But this decision can only be made with common sense, or logical thinking.
DeleteNope! knowledge that beis din is against the facts or halacha does not require commonsense or logical thinking. And some such as Rambam Rashi and Chinuch do require obedience even against halacha and facts
DeleteThe taaneh you raised was that i either misunderstood the Yerushalmi, or (chas vshalom) wilfully distorted it, However, you make no mention of the actually quote from the yerushalmi, nor is it (as far as i can see) in the selection of quotes in your longer post.
DeleteHere is what it says:
Is it possible that if they told you right is left and left is right you would have to listen to them? The verse teaches we must follow [the sages] "left and right" only when they tell you right is right, and left is left. (Yerushalmi Horiot 2b)
It is not my own derivation, I have heard from several rabbonim that this is what the yerushalmi says
your error lies in your misunderstanding of left and right
DeleteGmuch ummagumma intatuily +
ReplyDeleteIf I'm a gadol then you must accept my words.
Oh btw what about RSK + NG?
Nope!
DeleteThat is not correct either you ignore the sources and just jump from one extreme to the other
What you are actually doing is DENYING the Yerushalmi, and then trying to hang the blame on ME. Whatever spin you give on the Sifri (left from my perspective is right from yours), it does nto change the situation one iota! The Yerushalmi does not accept the argument, and it is a bit ful to suggest they "didn't understand" the Sifri, or the teaching that was recorded in it. I am just the messenger, but you don't need me to say it. Most Rabbonim and articles say that the Yerushalmi rejects this concept.
Delete