[Avodah] LW MO

[rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com]

Micha:
> but given the
> trend in Academic O circles toward mininizing dogma (eg R Marc Shapiro's
> book), it might not.

I'm not sure where Shapiro stands.

M. Mendelsohnn, Isaac Leeser and other "modernists" wanted to reduce
dogma and to untie us from being too rigid etc.

Now I do agree with Micha, that AFAIK no one of that chevra posits a
complete Orthopraxy devoid of any dogma!
They just want to chip away at the calcification or ossification that
took place in the ghetto.

Lemashal: Let's concede that Spinoza went way overboard. Could we have
salvaged his soul with a more liberal set of dogma that allowed for
greater exploration.

[And then think of Einstein, too.]

I wanted to set aside iqqarim or dogma in favor of "axioms" instead.
Some beliefs are sine qua non to be a Jew, and I think Rambam's list is
a bit dated.

Illustration:
The first axiom I would posit is
"That Hashem rescued Israel from Egypt"
Corollary
"And gave us the Torah at Sinai"

[This is mamash addressing the k'fira of the Exodus by R David Wolpe -
no relation AFAIK]

To me this embraces
    1 Hashem's role in history
    2 Our relationship to Hashem as HIS avodim
    3 Election of Israel
    4. Divine Nature of the Torah

I haven't come up with a definitive list yet, but this is my iqqar axiom -
to mix metaphors. ;-)

The problem we have had is that some dogmas have fossilized our minds.
It's not just about intolerance either! It's about overlooking our own
noses because of conditioning.

EG many cannot except or even visualize the Miracle of the ReBirth of
Israel due to dogmatic pre-conceptions!

You ask them
"Tzipisa leeshua?"
They say "yes - BUT it MUST dogmatically look THIS way and not that
way." And this disables their eyes from being makkir tov!

So I think Shapiro et al. are trying not to jettison all beliefs, just
jettison the rigidity.

KT
RRW
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