[Avodah] ra-ah - da-ah (from areivim)

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Jul 14, 2008 at 10:00:13AM -0400, Zev Sero wrote:
: The problem with this homiletics game is that it is just a game; the
: darshan is really giving his own view, not the gemara's, so nobody is
: obliged to accept it.  But some people are left with the impression
: that this is the gemara's or the medrash's view, and cite it (as was
: done on Areivim) as if it had some authority.

Yes, if the audience is misled it can be reduced to transvaluing terms to
create a whole new religion that only has the right quotes and buzzwords
to sound like Yahadus. There are movements of Jews in which such "derash"
is the norm, and even HS children could be invited to craft their own
"derashos" (if they have more creative teachers).

It's a danger, but I have a difficulty in calling it a problem.

There is a long history of sloganeering by pulling from a maamar chazal
or pasuq. Most famously perhaps is the CS's "chadash assur min haTorah".
If it's good enough for the Chasam Sofer, how can I call it problematic?

(TiDE is not. It's RSRH's peshat in "yafeh talmud Torah im derekh
eretz". I don't think the mishnah serves as proof, as the burden rests
primarily in showing that the DE of the mishnah is what RSRH uses it to
mean. But it's not an idea attached to a quote that the acharon didn't
actually believe was the plain meaning of the quote.)

Or my rebbe, RDLifshitz's annual Adar banner, hung in YU's beis medrash:
    Mishenichnas Adar Marbim Besimchah
    Ein Simchah Elah Torah
    Vekhol haMarbeh Harei Zeh Mechubach

RDL didn't think these three quotes were really intended by Chazal to
refer to each other. It's sloganeering.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Rescue me from the desire to win every
micha at aishdas.org        argument and to always be right.
http://www.aishdas.org              - Rav Nassan of Breslav
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