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

[Elazar M. Teitz]

:> 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.
:
In response to my comment 

 >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.<

RMBerger wrote
 
 .  . . you repeat what I feel is the wrong half of the Rambam's phrase,
yes it's "sheKOL hanimna'os", but the Rambam continues "mechuyavei
hametzi'us". What are the "necessities of existence" if not the laws of
nature? He doesn't speak of paradoxes and laws of logic..<

     I don't understand "mechuyavei ham'tzius" to mean "necessities of existence."  I believe it means "must necessarily have happened."  What Rambam is saying is that this group mistakenly believes that _all_ the seemingly impossible stories _must_ have taken place, that they are "m'tzius" (reality) rather than something else.

EMT

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