Rav Avraham ben HaRambam (Discourse on Agada): We are not obligated to accept the views of the sages of the Talmud on matters concerning medicine, natural science or astronomy - simply because of their greatness and authority - as we are concerning their explanations of the Torah. That is because concerning Torah, they were the ultimate experts and they had the exclusive authority to teach it as it says in the Torah, “You should do according to the Torah that they teach.”
Gets sticky when the Halacha is dependent on the science
ReplyDeleteIt's in interesting chiluq. We don't have to listen to Chazal on medicine because if we do, we might harm ourselves if we don't get the remedy right or understand their instructions. But we do have to listen to them on science and the age of the world even though it makes us look like fools.
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