[Avodah] History

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, March 3, 2008 7:24 am, Michael Makovi wrote:
:>  the members of Chazal who derived halakhos from such stories could
:> still have not assumed they were historical. One assumes a rule of
:> the system is that one does not besmirch a role model by attributing
:> actions to them that are today (at the time of the retelling)
:> considered assur.
...
: We could generalize this to say that any story of a gadol, in which he
: is depicted as doing such-and-such, we can learn that such is a
: legitimate way of behaving. Even if he didn't really do it, the fact
: that he is thought of having done it, lends it legitimacy.

As much legitimacy as one gives the people who retell it. My notion is
that a halakhah derived from a story about Avraham that dates back to
the tannaim should be presumed to be an intentional implication of the
tannaim who preserved and retold the story. Most story tellers -- and
none living today -- carry the same halachic authority. So, while it's
similar in kind, it's so dissimilar in quantity as to not be
comparable.

SheTir'u baTov!
-micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "Man wants to achieve greatness overnight,
micha at aishdas.org        and he wants to sleep well that night too."
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