[Avodah] daas torah & history

[Eli Turkel]

To put it another way: With all the MO talk against da'as Torah, look
how much ink was spilled (and how many bits were arranged?) discussing
RYBS's and RAS's versions of Zionism and whether one can/should give
back territory. Their pictures hanging on their students' walls to
remind them -- not of information, but of the culture, attitudes and
"feel" of their rebbe's shiur room.>>

No one objects to following ones rebbe's derech. The problem with daas torah
is the insistence that it is their rebbe who is correct and he never errs.
RYBS always stressed the importance of one thinking for himself. That doesnt
mean ignoring the opinions of gedolim including RYBS himself.


: I've never understood the objection, for example, to a certain Chumash
: narrative being stam history. If it has a lesson, yofi, but if not,
: what's the problem? Suppose there were no lessons to learn from the
: Avot and Imot - do you think that then you could dispense with their
: history? ...

Not just Chazal... Look how paltry the biographies of the avos and
Moshe Rabbeinu are. Missing decades in Avraham's life... not even his
re-discovery of monotheism is covered. Large chunks missing from
Moshe's life. No description of the majority of the time in the
midbar.

Or to rephrase Micah Chumash is not a history book or a science book

-- 
Eli Turkel