[Avodah] Consumer alert:minhog scams on the rise!

[Elazar M. Teitz]

In response to the comment,

> Those are just the fool-making stories he's talking about!<,

RZSero wrote

> Since when?  What source do you have for that?  Clearly he's talking
about the stories that nobody can possibly believe literally happened,
such as those of Rabba bar Bar Chana.<

To which RMBerger replied

>Look at the Rambam's words. He says that divrei chakhamim are melitzah,
and intepreting them literally is wrong. That part doesn't require
disbelieving that they aren't also potentially historical -- just that
there is no actual historical claim being made. Chazal do not repeat
a story any more because it's history than if it weren't. But then he
talks about people who "...vena'asu etzlam kol hanimna'os mechuyevei
hamtzei'us." The Rambam rules out such stories that defy nature.<

     When the Rambam criticizes those for whom "na'asu etzlam kol hanimna'os mechuyavei ham'tzius," he does _not_ rule out all incidents which go against nature.  He criticizes them for believing "she_kol_ hanimna'os" -- _all_ "impossible" incidents --  must be true.  This is not the same as saying all are not true.  Certainly he held neis Chanuka to be literal.  Why should "chometz v'yadlik" be any more unbelievable?  Furthermore, the g'mara derives a halacha from the incident of R. Pinchas b. Yair's donkey, stating that we must interpret an act of R. Meir's as proving something muttar for eating, because it certainly couldn't have been an oversight on his part: if even a tzaddik's animal is prevented by Hashem from eating b'issur, kal vachomer for a tzaddik himself.  It's difficult to see how the kal vachomer works if the story is only a m'litza.

EMT 

  r

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