[Avodah] Classical Academia, Deconstruction, and Mesorah

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 07:45:08PM +0300, Michael Makovi wrote:
: Granted there are limitations; the academic approach involves a bit of
: hutzpah and is probably impossible to perfectly fulfill, while the
: post-modern approach is egotistically self-centered and ahistorical,
: and makes a mockery of the original text. But I think we can salvage
: them if we use them in moderation. We don't have to slavishly adhere
: to one approach alone.

: I don't claim to have all the answers, or to have all the details
: worked out, but my basic solution is two-fold:
: 1) Whether to use academic historicism, post-modernism, or mesorah,
: depends on our given goal at the given point in time;
: 2) These three choices should be used in tandem, to different degrees,
: in moderation, with common sense.

I'm arguing that only mesorah is mesorah. Historicism, deconstructionism,
may be informative as Mada, but they aren't Torah. Not how biur is to
be done, etc... They have no impact on halakhah whatsoever. Yes, they
each have a role in terms of human knowledge, and if you want to know
just stam to know, kol hakavod.

In the last post I discussed the difference between pesaq as truth-finding
with pesaq as law-construction. In this one I'm emphasizing the idea that
academic study of the sources has no authority WRT law construction and
even is a search for the wrong truth according to those who define pesaq
as truth-finding.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             The purely righteous do not complain about evil,
micha at aishdas.org        but add justice, don't complain about heresy,
http://www.aishdas.org   but add faith, don't complain about ignorance,
Fax: (270) 514-1507      but add wisdom.     - R AY Kook, Arpilei Tohar