[Avodah] R' Keller's JO article on evolution

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, October 1, 2006 3:32 pm, Zev Sero wrote:
: On the contrary, until the mid-19th century nobody questioned the
: literal meaning of the narrative.  They looked for deeper meanings,
: beyond the obvious, but not for a moment did they accept or even
: consider that the physical events didn't happen exactly as described.
: You yourself acknowledge a few paragraphs later that the Ramban and
: Kuzari took it literally; do you really think they were unique in
: this?

The Ramban took the 6 days literally -- after the time between 1:1 and 1:2,
and except according to REED who argues that the Ramban describes days of a
form we can't comprehend. RYGB cited many other sources who asserted that span
of time between the first two pesuqim; pretty much every mequbal but the Ari.
To the point that RYGB wrote that this was the majority shitah historically.
Rashi about day 4 was also raised. The Rambam and whether the 6 days of
creation were time of any sort was also discussed. Given the Maharal, REED and
this shitah in the Rambam, I'm convinced the majority opinion was that the
time span of creation is a meaningless question. The idea that most assumed it
was literal is FAR from given. But we've all stated our positions on the
subject multiple times already.

I don't mean the following about RZS's post in particular. But look, if
lifting the ban means just spending another year going around the same circles
saying exactly the same things, I'll just slap the ban back on again.

Tir'eh beTov!
-mi

-- 
Micha Berger             One who kills his inclination is as though he
micha at aishdas.org        brought an offering. But to bring an offering,
http://www.aishdas.org   you must know where to slaughter and what
Fax: (270) 514-1507      parts to offer.        - R' Simcha Zissel Ziv