[Avodah] Creation eternal heretical - hashkafa question

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, May 13, 2010 at 02:35:34AM -0400, Hankman wrote:
:> Not that I buy all of the above. However, if RMT sees the Rambam that
:> way, I can't call it kefirah.

: Well, if it is not kefirah, why don't you buy it? It seems to be a
: necessary result of the hashkafic logic trail I painted at the start of
: my previous post. How do you break out of that chain of logic and what
: is the alternative that you do buy?

First, I don't buy that's the Rambam's intent. One problem with hunting
for a hidden subtext is that it ends up being more a Rorschach test. The
academics find hidden statements in the Rambam that violate his own
iqqarim. Various rishonim each find echos of their own mehalekh.

And RMTriebetz, who prepared RYBS's notes for a sefer on Bereishis, sees
in the Rambam Kantian dialectics. From an Aristotilian we get attention
to the gap between the-world-as-is and the-world-as-perceived? And far
from Artistotle's Law of Contradiction, the Rambam discussed dialectics?
Personally, I doubt it was the Rambam's intent.

Second, I don't believe your line of reasoning WRT my own position.

As we already saw the Rambam noting, time is itself a beryah. "Always"
means across all time -- that time is relevent, but we're discussing
something that has an infinite time. However, Hashem's eternity isn't
infinite time, but lemaaleh min hazeman. Time is an irrelevent concept.

The theory you're promoting acknowledged that time is a nivra WRT maaseh
bereishis being lemaalah min hazeman, but it falls short by placing
Ratzon Hashem within zeman.

Hashem wants (for lack of a better tense) the universe, but there is no
"when" to that desire. Your argument presumes there is a when -- but it
is infinitely long.

So, even though the existence of the universe depends only on his will,
Hashem didn't *always* want a universe, and therefore one can't conclude
the universe always existed. "Always", meaning the time line, is itself
a product of that Will too.

(Third, I am not convinced of String "Theory", never mind those particular
versions that eliminate the singularity at the Big Bang. IOW, I think
the scientific evidence rules out an infinitely old universe.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 44th day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        6 weeks and 2 days in/toward the omer.
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