[Avodah] Rabmam's psak

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Sep 07, 2007 at 01:59:04PM -0700, Eli Turkel wrote:
: 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....

Which came first -- the chicken or the egg? Perhaps the Rambam's
willingness to believe that all kishuf is trickery was because he had
to explain why it would be assur otherwise.

After all, believing in actual magic would even have been proper
Aristotilianism. Magic, astrology and alchemy weren't excluded from the
realm of rationalism until enturies after the Rambam.

Similarly, the example of women and sherarah. One can theorize which
came first, but to think the acceptance of the cultural artifact was
the *cause* of the pesaq is simply conjecture. (Most likely, both
are products of common cause.)

GCT!
-mi