[Avodah] Drazin book on Rambam -

[david guttmann]

Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin has recently written a book published by Gefen
publishing called Maimonides The Exceptional Mind. Though the author
presents himself as Orthodox with credentials supposedly from Ner Israel,
has served in the Chaplaincy for over 30 years and is a Brigadier General in
the Army, he is far from any understanding of legitimate Judaism. 

Here are some examples of his ideas ascribed to Rambam -

>God did not instruct Abraham to leave his home and journey to Canaan.
Abraham made the choice himself, perhaps as part f his search to understand
and come close to God. God did not tell Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.
This was a natural internal struggle; Abraham may have been debating within
himself to what lengths he must go to show his love to God. . . ."

See Rambam MN 3:24 where he argues that one of the things the Akeidah
teaches is nevuah. This quote in my mind is just over the line but see
further.

>that the blowing of Shofar on this day was started by the masses and was
later justified by the rabbis using the two cited verses."

Where is TSBP and Pirushim Hamekubalim that Rambam builds his whole
understanding of Halacha? See my post on this at 
http://yediah.blogspot.com/2008/12/my-last-words-on-unexceptional-book-to.ht
ml . His idea is that originally Misinai there was no Shofar just "shouting"
as is the >literal< meaning of the word Teruah. The masses because of their
belief in demonology instituted Shofar because it scares away the demons.
The Rabbis were forced to accept this and tried to mitigagte it by coming up
with new ideas for it! 

>Maimonides recognized the authority of the earlier Rabbis and accepted
their decisions but only because each of their rulings derives from the role
they played in Jewish history. Maimonides was thus expressing the belief
that the rabbinic decisions were not correct per se, but, since the majority
of Jews had decided to accept the early rabbis' Halachik decisions, they
became authoritative

According to Drazin there is only one category Takanot Uminhagim which
require acceptance of the masses. Where are the Pirushim Hamekubalim,
decisions of Beit Din Hagadol based on the 13 Midot etc... As enumerated in
Mamrim chapter 2? But even more galling Halacha in its entirety is
subservient to "Puk Chazi Mah Ameh Davar"! 

He is also very big on dismissing opposing opinions with chutzpah and
disdain. Here is how he addresses the Kuzari's concept of the chosen people:

>However, his [Halevi] notion of Jewish supremacy is outrageous and
perverse, and his understanding of history illogical.


Even his understanding of Kefirah concepts such as biblical criticism is
flawed. My uncle A'H used to say to be a proper Apikores one has to know how
to learn. It sounds better in Yiddish > Zu zain an apikores darf man kennen
lernen ob nisht is man nor a Shoteh <.  I have written a few posts on his
book as I felt that the uninformed should not even think in accepting any of
his ideas. I abhor censorship but it is a Mitzvah lefarsem that his writings
are unreliable and he has no understanding whatsoever of Rambam, Kuzari et
al and worse of all what is Torah and Halacha. 

He has approbations on the Amazon site from Prof. Shamma Friedmann which is
surprising for such a book unless he wrote it tongue in cheek. The author
has written on onkelos which received an approbation from Rabbi Norman Lamm
that he placed on the cover of this book. It took me a while to realize that
it did not belong here. 

My posts are at 

http://yediah.blogspot.com/2008/12/rabbi-dr-israel-drazin-and-maimonides.htm
l

 http://yediah.blogspot.com/2008/12/basis-for-talmudic-authority.html

http://yediah.blogspot.com/2008/12/basis-for-talmudic-authority-is-halacha.h
tml

http://yediah.blogspot.com/2008/12/my-last-words-on-unexceptional-book-to.ht
ml



David Guttmann
 
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