[Avodah] flood

[Eli Turkel]

<<I am interested in seeing an example of a rishon who, based on
new information, changed, or posited that we should change, the
traditional/conventional way of understanding the basic nature of any
Torah narratives from historical to allegorical. As far as I can see,
any rishon who posits that a particular narrative is meant allegorically
maintains that this was the way Chazal understood it all along.>>

I think it is clear that Rambam, Ralbag etc. chose allegorical interpretations
(ie the events occurred in a dream rather than in real life) whenever the
stories conflicted with their theology or sense of the real world.
Rambam clearly states that when there are conflicting interpretations in chazal
he chooses the one he prefers based on his philosophy and not based on any
rules that apply to standard halachic arguments.
I have never attempted to see whther every re-interpretation in Rambam can be
traced to some Chazal.

Ramban states that the rainbow was not "invented" after the flood based on
scientific reasoning but re-interprets the pesukim that it is a sign based on a
pre-existing rainbow.

In rishonim it is likely to see a change because of new knowledge
since science moved
very slowly in those days and differences from the science of chazal were small.

Note that Tiferes Yisrael uses the many previous worlds to explain dinosaurs.
This is another example where one chooses a relatively minor approach based on
external reasons.

I refer everyone to Prof. Shat'z article in Tradition on using science
to interpret pesukim
mainly in bereshit. Without revisiting the issue we have discussed
many times one
has to confront the issue of vast differences between science and the Torah.
In this case there is absolutely no evidence of a global flood some
4000 years ago
that destroyed (almost all) living beings.
As we have discussed many times there are many approaches including
just saying that
science and dating and rings on trees are simply wrong. Not everyone
is happy with
that approach.


-- 
Eli Turkel