Rationality and Halacha: The Halacha L’Moshe MiSinai of Treifos
https://hakirah.org/Vol%204%20Buchman.pdf
In his article justifying the ban on the works of Rabbi Nosson Slifkin, Rabbi Aharon Feldman1enlists the aid of two of our most influential Rishonim, Rashba and Rivash. He tells us that both of them insist that “it is forbidden to say that the Sages erred in matters of science.”Indeed, in the teshuva quoted, Rivash is quite explicit on this point with regard to hilchos treifos.2 If we accept what the doctors say, we will have overturned the laws of treifos which are a halacha l’Moshe misinai,and in fact we will be saying “that the Torah is not from the Heavens.” Rashba3 also insists that the doctors are absolutely unreliable with regard to their evaluations of treifos. One must totally ignore what they say, for the laws governing when we say an animal is destined to die from a wound are halacha l’Moshe misinai. To deny these facts is to deny our mesorah from Sinai.4
Seven hundred years later, the poskim of the previous generation had no intention of accepting this attitude of Rashba and Rivash. When confronted with a contradiction between what medicine tells us about wounded and sick animals and the treifos that Chazal have handed down to us, the Chazon Ish14 and Rav Moshe Feinstein zt"l15 never considered the possibility that the doctors were wrong. Rav Moshe notes the position of Rashba and explicitly explains that his attitude is incorrect. He tells us that in the days of Rashba, long distance communication between areas was so limited that Rashba was unaware of what had been proven elsewhere and thus was skeptical when told that certain wounds could be cured.16 According to Rav Moshe, Rashba is just wrong and today in gan eden he admits it.17 Although the present-day Talmudic student is trained to believe that a Rishon can never be considered wrong and our task is merely to explain the differing opinions, this is not Rav Moshe’s opinion. In this area, where a Rishon has predicated his position upon the stance that observable fact must be denied, the position of that Rishon must be rejected. It would be illogical to disagree with Rav Moshe, and the ramifications of this fact will be discussed in a future article. 18
I don't know who the author of this article is because the link is no longer working. But it makes sense. It shows that very few people even understand what gedolim actually said.
ReplyDeletehttps://hakirah.org/Vol%204%20Buchman.pdf
DeleteAs I wrote on my blog years ago, the question is: If Chazal came back to life today and looked around, how would they deal with modern science?
ReplyDelete1) Chareidi view: This is all false. We live on a flat disc and the sun revolves around us, and lice are spontaneously generated, and so on. If you think otherwise you are believing atheist scientists and you're a heretic. Ignore your eyes and ears and listen to us.
2) Non-Chareidi view: Wow, there's so much new information to leaern so we can truly understand how God built the universe. Let's get to it!