[Avodah] [Areivim] Rabbi strikes against iPhone

[Prof. Levine]

At 09:02 AM 9/21/2012, R. Harry Maryles wrote on Areivim:
>I have to say that RSRH devotee Dayan Grunfeld - as interpreted 
>below is not the mainstream understanding of Yahdus in my view. To 
>say that one does not believe in God but instead "knows' God sounds 
>almost like Apikursus!

[I am posting my response on Avodah where I think it belongs.  YL]

When I told an erudite friend what Dayan Grunfeld had said to his 
son,  he replied,  "In one place the RAMBAM says one has to believe 
in Hashem and in another he says that one has to know Hashem."  I do 
not recall where he said this was written.

 From http://www.mhcny.org/pdf/Holidays/Shavuoth/7.pdf

Is Belief in God a Mitzvah? Maimonides on the First Commandment

It behooves us, then, to explore what led our great teacher the 
Rambam to count belief as a
mitzvah, especially since the plain meaning of the Biblical verse 
does not contain an element of
commandment. In addition, the later commentators and philosophers 
raise two string objections
to the Rambam's interpretation. Rav Hasdai Crescas, in the 
introduction to his philosophical
masterpiece Or Hashem, points out that it is circular reasoning to 
speak of God commanding us
to believe in God. No one can believe in God because God commanded 
him to do so, for if he
obeys God's command, that means that he already believed in God 
anyway. And if someone
doesn't already believe in God, then telling him that God commands 
belief is irrelevant.
Therefore, concludes Crescas, it is illogical for God to command that 
you believe in Him.

In addition, Crescas points out that commandment only applies to 
volitional acts, and belief is
decidedly involuntary. If you are convinced by the evidence, you are 
forced to believe
something, and if you have not found convincing evidence, you cannot 
believe it with certainty.
No threat, sanction, or command can make you believe something if you 
are not convinced that it
is true. To illustrate this objection with a contemporary example, I 
cannot command you to
believe the world is flat if you are not actually convinced by the 
evidence I present, and even if I
threaten you with the death penalty for disbelief, you may decide to 
lie and say that you believe
the world is flat, but you will never succeed in making yourself 
actually believe it.

 From footnote 4

In the Mishneh Torah, the only major work in which Rambam chose his 
own Hebrew terminology,
he consistently uses the root "de'ah" in this context and never 
"emunah". On this basis, both
Rav Chaim Heller and Rav Yosef Kafah (in their respective editions of 
Sefer HaMitzvot) argue
compellingly for the translation "leida" in place of "lehaamin" in 
the Sefer Hamitzvot.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20120921/5c167a1e/attachment.htm>