[Avodah] Torah UMadda

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Mar 02, 2011 at 02:01:44PM -0500, David Riceman wrote:
: Consider an analogy with psak. If you ask a shailah, and the rav you
: ask lists ten answers given by rishonim and aharonim, but gives you
: no sense of how they came to their conclusions, how useful is that
: response? Surely you shouldn't just pick the answer you like best;
: that's not how psak works. Why should this case be any different?

Because machashavah does work that way. (As long as we are dealing
with issues like how Torah and mada relate, and not issues of kefirah,
apiqursus or meenus.

We preconsciously pick the answer we find compelling. Emphasis on the word
"preconsciously" -- you hear an idea and before bechirah even steps in
you found it compelling. The only control we have is in what we choose
to study, where we choose to focus our attention.

Which is why someone who believes in kefirah isn't necessarily a kofeir;
the bechirah element is too weak for anything universal. It depends
/how/ he became a kofeir. Was their path to heresy something they are
accountable for?

On a machashavah issue that has no halachic import, no rav can tell
someone he must believe X rather than Y. I mean he can actually make
such an announcement, but the talmid's own emunah is not necessarily
going to flip on a dime because of it. Perhaps it's better to give that
talmid a list of choices, for him to develop his own response.

Perhaps sometimes chinukh al pi darko requires giving them room to find
that derekh for themselves.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "And you shall love H' your G-d with your whole
micha at aishdas.org        heart, your entire soul, and all you own."
http://www.aishdas.org   Love is not two who look at each other,
Fax: (270) 514-1507      It is two who look in the same direction.