[Avodah] daas torah & history

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, March 6, 2008 12:56 pm, R Eli Turkel wrote:
: 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

RET's phrasing pointed out an interesting inconsistency in our debates.

WRT historical claims, eg the mabul, it was argued here that the Torah
isn't a history book, and therefore these claims aren't TSBP, and new
positions about them aren't "contrary to our prophets and sages" (to
paraphrase the Rambam).

However, WRT historical study of Torah itself, many of the same people
(eg RMShinnar) are arguing it /is/ talmud Torah?!

Of course, I have to explain the same thing in reverse, but in my
direction it's simpler. The Torah of history is "it" albeit not the
core topic; the history of Torah is "about it", albeit about the core
topic. It's not a study of (e.g.) halakhah, it's a study /about/ one
aspect of halakhah. A kind of study that, because it strives for
objectivity and keeping the topic external, never crosses the line to
become "it".

RRW and I had a long discussion (which eventually reached my blog)
which touched on why I think C was doomed to leave normative halachic
process. Among the primary factors is that halakhah requires weighing
factors, which in turn is a "feel" thing. C prises academic
scholarship IN PLACE OF normative talmud Torah. This is how Historical
School thought changed practice. Thus, they may know how to identify
the things to be weighed (although the few C responsa I've seen were
downright dishonest in this regard as well), but they perforce end up
weighing them using their own priorities, not priorities taken from
the Sinai culture. (Of course, without requiring belief in an actual
revelation in Sinai, they have no notion of a Sinai culture anyway.)

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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