[Avodah] on orthopraxy

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Aug 11, 2013 at 09:39:57AM -0700, saul newman wrote:
: because i think the standard answer would be a C person would say the
: system works , keep doing it even if premise false.    the O person
: presumed to say  if premise false  , let's eat traif and  drop the whole
: system--- no mitzva if no metzuveh...

I referred back to my earlier post for a reason. C legal process's differences
from halakhah are supported by two philosophical ideas we do not share:

1- that studying the historical and sociological forces that shaped halakhah
should be part of that legal process
and
2- documentary theory allows them to apply #1 even to derashos.

Dr Farber also notes that his theory about the origin of the Torah would
have halachic impact. http://thetorah.com/torah-history-judaism-part-4/

    In my view, Judaism is essentially a wave that eternally sends the
    messages of God. However, in order to understand how to apply these
    messages we must understand how any given halacha or ideal functioned
    in any given society, particularly the original society, ancient
    Israel. When we understand this, we can "subtract" the societal
    elements to see the ideas in their relative purity and reapply them
    to our times. Waves, however, require continuity. For this reason, it
    is vital to understand how the Torah functioned in every generation
    since Moshe in order to do this right. This requires serious study
    and thought.

And as I wrote, belief in the reality of derashah and belief in a text
that shows seams and inconsistencies between originating texts are
mutually inconsistent.

The 39 Melakhos are the product of a derashah. Document Theory is
contradicted by the reality that is Shabbos.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Life is a stage and we are the actors,
micha at aishdas.org        but only some of us have the script.
http://www.aishdas.org               - Rav Menachem Nissel
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