[Avodah] Taking Midrashim Literally

[Prof. Levine]

At 10:15 AM 6/24/2011, Richard Wolberg wrote:
>> ...certainly one who refuses ever to believe the literal meaning 
>> of a medrash is a kofer in the whole torah.

>     Upon what source do you base this statement?

>Certainly you are aware there are rationalist meforshim who 
>interpret the incident of Bilaam's talking donkey
>in a NON-LITERAL manner. Rambam sees it occurring in a dream. The 
>Ramchal suggests that the donkey
>brayed plaintively and Bilaam intuited what it was trying to convey. 
>And this is not a medrah; this is from the
>Torah. Are they also kofrim? In addition, the Midrash lists Bilaam's 
>donkey as one of the 10 miracles created
>by God in the last hours of Creation. So does that make Rambam a 
>kofer because he didn't take it literally?

Whenever I hear someone called a kofer I recall that the followers of
Shabbatai Tzvi were called Maaminim and those opposed to him Kofrim.
 From this I deduce that there are times when it is not bad to be a
kofer! >:-}



At 10:46 AM 6/24/2011, R. Zev Sero wrote:
>The bottom line is that Judaism is not Protestantism.

Of course it is not!  As I have pointed out from the writings of RSRH 
more than once, Judaism is not a religion whereas Protestantism is a 
religion.  How could anyone make any analogies between religion and 
Judaism?

YL