[Avodah] Rabmam's psak

[Eli Turkel]

<<: On more serious issues it is impossible to define what is a Torah
: thought and what is an alien idea. Is a psak of Rambam alien because
: he learned Greek philosophy?

Well, don't two promoters of secular studies recommend avoiding Hil'
Yesodei haTorah for this very reason?>>

I contend that it goes way beyond hilchot yesodei haTorah. One example
is that Rambam outlaws "magic shows" as kishuf while others define kishuf
as being "real black magic" as opposed to sleight of hand. However, Rambam
could
not hold this shita since on philosophical grounds he denies the existence
of
real magic. I am not aware of any shitah that disagrees with the Rambam on
magic
(like the Gra) and therefore disagrees with Rambam in the straight halacha
of magic.

I have seen historians claim that the Rambam's psak against women taking
leadership
positions (which doesnt seem to have any known source) was influenced by
Moslem attitudes
towards women and was never accepted by rishonim in Ashkenaz. In more
general
terms I think there are many examples of the attitude of poskim towards
women
being influenced by the attitude of their contemporary society towards
women.
In general historians bring many examples of innovations in Jewish culture
which
seem to be related to similar innovations in the general culture

kol tuv

-- 
Eli Turkel
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