[Avodah] do gentiles have more teeth

[Micha Berger]

On Sat, Feb 20, 2010 at 07:38:14PM +0200, Eli Turkel wrote:
: Midrash Talpiyot was authored by Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Avraham, and
: was published in 1698.
: hardly qualifies as chazal

If it's a true medrash, the conditional I put in before as well, then it
was redacted or collected in 1698 -- from maamarei chazal found
elsewhere.

: 2.  R Chaim Kanevesky quotes R. Y. Zilberstein that some dentist
: actually uses this difference
: in teeth to identify Jews. So it is not being used merely theoretrically

He repeats a rumor. However, it looks like the question involved was a
way to matir healing an unconscious patient on Shabbos, since he would
have 32 teeth.

The bottom line is, though, that you're bringing our interest in halakhah
lining up with scientific realia (or in my case, lining up with the world
as observable without mediation of tools), and criticising someone else
who apparently doesn't share that assumption.

If RCK thought that the medical reality were important, he would go to
medical authorities. He asks engineers about the devices used Shabbos,
psychologists about the contents of 12 Step programs, doctors about
piquach nefesh, etc...

This one case he is relying on what he believes to be a maamar chazal
that we don't have recorded until the end of the 17th cent CE. It's not
a pattern. So the question is what's missing from our analysis.

I proposed one possibility -- that he cares more about living according
to chazal than making statements based on physical reality. That that's
how halakhah ought to work. I'm open to others.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             When memories exceed dreams,
micha at aishdas.org        The end is near.
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