[Avodah] Did Someone Forget Eilu v'eilu?

[Yitzhak Grossman]

On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 02:21:07 -0400
"Moshe Y. Gluck" <mgluck at gmail.com> wrote:

> R' Yitzchok Grossman, quoting Ralbag:
> > And it appeared in his dream that God opened the ass's mouth and it
> > spoke to him twice ...
> 
> 
> What would Ralbag do with the Mishna in Avos (5:8) that says the Pi HaAson
> was created Erev Shabbos?

That's exactly the point; he rejects that Mishnah!  Here is the
beginning of his remarks (Bamidbar 22:21):


This narrative has many extremely difficult problems:

The first, how is it possible that the ass could see an angel of God,
for no one who is not a prophet can see one ...

And if we say that God did this as a miracle, then we must ask what
point was there in this miracle ...

And if we say that this 'Malach' was a prophet, there will still remain
a problem, for what purpose was it necessary to create then the
miraculous event of the ass's speaking?  Additionally, we cannot say
who this prophet was.

Moreover, how did Balak's nobles and Bilam's youths not see him ...

And it is clear that God does not create miracles without a need ...

Now the opinion of our Rabbis Z"L is that this affair was according to
the simple reading, and so they have said that the ass's mouth was
among the things that were created bein ha'she'mashos.

And what appears to us according to the true fundamental principles
that are apparent from the words of the prophets and from analysis is
that this story was an episode that occurred to Bilam in a prophetic
vision. ...

[continuing as per my previous post]

Note that this is not your typical peshat / derush dichotomy; Ralbag is
not rejecting Hazal's opinion based on the written text, but is rather
maintaining that it is philosophically untenable *on its own terms*.

> KT,
> MYG

Yitzhak
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