Devarim - Moshe said it on his own

The Eighth Principle of Faith is that the Torah we have was given by G-d to Moshe at Sinai.

רמב"ם (סנהדרין י:א) והיסוד השמיני הוא תורה מן השמים. והוא, שנאמין שכל התורה הזו הנמצאת בידינו היום הזה היא התורה שניתה למשה, ושהיא כולה מפי הגבורה...

However this principle becomes problematic when we come to the book of Devarim.

The Abarbanel says quite bluntly in his introduction to Devarim that it was written by Moshe and then afterwards G-d agreed to it and had it included in the Torah. While one might respond that the Abarbanel was not main stream and his view can be ignored, this is also the view of the Ohr HaChaim. Despite the Ohr HaChaim's stature in the world of Chassidus - the Munkatcher Rebbe declared this view to be heresy

In short, the first four books of the Torah were given directly by G-d, but the fifth book was composed by a godly man who was able to express G-d's views so perfectly hat his words became Torah. Interestingly the Leshem says something similar concerning the views of Chazal - which seriously blurs the distinction between Torah and Rabbinic mitzvos.

I am not sure the readership of this blog is interested in this topic - which many find very disturbing. But it is directly relevant to the other topic - Chabad/Rebbe - concerning which I have received a number of emails saying that they were tired of hearing about it. If there is interest I will be glad to post more on the topic - otherwise I will move in another direction.

Chabad - Messianics - Everyone is today!

There has been some debate as to whether the Messianic faction or the Anti-Messianic faction is the dominate one among Lubavitchers. This is in fact one of the key concerns of Prof. David Berger in his attack on Chabad.

I recently asked a Chabad friend of mine who is a distinguished talmid chachom, posek and askan about this issue. He said, "There is no one in Chabad today who doesn't think the Rebbe is Moshiach. The only dispute concerns political issues - should this fact be concealed or be revealed to outsiders." Thus the question suggests a false dichotomy which only serves to conceal the truth.

Kiruv XIV - Aish HaTorah - Is there a better way?

Pole's comment to "Kiruv IX - Aish HaTorah as viewed by secular Jewis...":

If Aish is so open minded, how come everyone who is integrated successfully into their stream of Judaism comes out looking the same as all others in it, speaks the same as all others in it, wears a black kippah, swims with the tide of the social norms and is unable to think critically against anything that its rabbi's preach?

Upon attending one of their events in London, I asked a question that went against and challenged the thinking of the lecturer and what she was trying to convince her audience of. When the lecture finished and everyone was givent he opportunity to mingle and socialise with others in the audience, I was taken aside by one of the rabbis so as not to be able to mix and be a 'bad' influence on the others who perhaps may have become drawn to the lecturer's way of thinking. I was shocked.

Although my dislike for Aish is large however, I cannot help but feel my anger should be more aimed at those who should have been providing decent Jewish education to our children in the first place - that being the mainstream Jewish communities that run cheder curriculums and Jewish leadership as a whole. Aish and other kiruv groups like it are simply picking up the shattered pieces of Jewish identity and education which were left lying on the ground by the crappy education these teenagers (mainly referring to the UK) received as children.

It may be too late for there to be a solution to this organisation now as it would indeed be very hard to challenge the millions of kiruv dollars that are pumped into Aish and Ohr Sameach (students in London are now offered $600 to simply attend a 6 week lecture series during which they are fed the offers for free trips etc). I'm not saying that kiruv is necessarily bad but there is a long term way of doing it which requires foresight, strategy and leadership to carry out, and not a blizkrieg of Bible Codes and other nonsense to 'Wow!' someone into drastically change their whole lifestyle and thinking that more often than not backfires to return them to a similar, if not worse, position than they were in before.