[Avodah] Sefer HaChinuch on why 2 weeks Nidah for a girl and only 1 for a boy

[FKM Voice From The Wilderness]

*>>Some people think that if you say Chazal or Ramban or the Sefer Hachinuch
were wrong about some scientific fact, then you are being disrespectful to
them.  I was raised with a completely different understanding and a
different attitude.  I would add that if they did refer to the highest
standards of scientific knowledge of their own time, that is a siman that
we, too, should follow their example and apply the highest standards of
scientific knowledge of our time.  Who was it who said, "Chachma bagoyim
ta'amin"?  Not some modern maskil or Reform rabbi.*

* *

*--Toby Katz<<
*
*I believe "Chachma bagoyim ta'amin" *Is immediately followed by the
contrasting phrase "*Torah bagoyim al ta'amin". *It implies that the norm is
one of *conflict* and lack of equation. Secular wisdom does NOT easily
translate into Torah wisdom.
Incorporating an extraneous methodology for discovering truth outside the
Torah is fraught with dangers and pitfalls. One should never confuse "the
highest standards of scientific knowledge" (chochma) with *Torah* as the
author above seems to have done.
When Chazal or rishonim do incorporate secular wisdom into their
interpretations of Torah, it goes without saying that they were quite
selective in what they were accepting. (It follows that they only accepted
ideas that, although may not be empirically verifiable to us, were at least
guaranteed to be compatible with what the Torah says on the subject. This is
more important -and more educational to us- than getting the science right.)

 The Moreh Nevuchim is a clear illustration of how the Rambam went through a
pain-staking careful process in screening out non-Jewish ideas
were compatible with true Torah hashkafa of Chazal and which must be
rejected.
 It cannot conceivably be used as a blank check to be open to everything
that is considered well established by modern science.

Dovid Kornreich


On Thu, Feb 14, 2008 at 10:21 PM, <T613K at aol.com> wrote:

>   From: Gershon Seif gershonseif at yahoo.com
>
> >>Anyone ever see what the Sefer HaChinuch writes about why women who give
> birth to a boy are in Nidah for a week but for a girl it's 2 weeks?....
>
> ....The problem is that he then quotes a Ramban and says that this is
> exactly what the Ramban is saying too..... Are we left saying the Ramban got
> it wrong? Or he meant something else and we don't understand? Or the chinuch
> had a different approach to learning Ramban? <<
>
>
> >>>>>
> I just don't understand this whole tzimmes.  What's the big deal about
> saying Ramban might have been wrong about something?  There are plenty of
> times that other meforshim disagree with Ramban about this and that.
>
> This particular question is moot anyway because no modern woman bleeds for
> only a week after the birth of a baby.  The norm is several weeks.
>
> *=============
> *
>
>
>
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