[Avodah] The daf yomi in Chulin 128a Tanaim hold the kishus planted in an otsits sh???aino nakuf is yonaik min ha'aretz-

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Nov 06, 2011 at 10:07:44AM -0500, hankman wrote:
:> This assumption that everything must be scientific is why the Man of
:> Faith is lonelier today than ever before.

:> I think the zeitgeist is broken, and misleading you into seeking answers
:> to questions that aren't real.

: CM responds:

: I am not talking about being scientific, but I am expecting for truth
: to prevail in Torah to the best ability. I do look to science for our
: best notion of what the factual truth may be. (Understanding that some
: sciences are much better than others at being at or close to the truth
: than others, and that from time to time science learns some new tricks as
: well)...

That's called being scientific.

...
: How I think about it does not matter...

Again, why would halakhah care about what is, ie reality as science can
explain it? It's job is to change people, and thus really only should
care about reality as people can relate to it. Things we know are true but
could never experience might be "factual truth", but do nothing to shape
people, to accomplish halakhah's goals. Maggot eggs and microscopic
crustacians have no mamashus.

Birkhas haChamah is set to 365-1/4 day years, even though we knew tekufas
R' Adda was a more accurate estimate of the solar year. There are
numerous examples of chazal knowingly ignoring scientific accuracy in
facor of commonsensical notions of reality.

So why would we think things are any different when they didn't know
they weren't being scientifically accurate?

: I am not sure the average person thinks the way you suppose in any
: case. Even today, the average person, who has had no exposure to botany
: 101, would not assume any yunika through the leaves from the atmosphere
: ???just via the roots, kal vechomer for the average person bimay Chazal
: (but clearly Chazal where already aware that the leaves play a role and
: are involved in the nutrition of the plant ??? even if this is from the
: sun and atmosphere and not from the earth via the air.)

People who take botany 101 still don't have different gut reactions
than the rest of us. Just at it was proven that people who know thrown
objects follow parabolic trajectories -- even professional ballplayers
who both know this AND practice catching every day -- still track objects
as though they fall vertically once they start falling. Middos aren't
intellectual excercises.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             A sick person never rejects a healing procedure
micha at aishdas.org        as "unbefitting." Why, then, do we care what
http://www.aishdas.org   other people think when dealing with spiritual
Fax: (270) 514-1507      matters?              - Rav Yisrael Salanter