[Avodah] Rav Elchanan Wasserman & Why People Sin

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 01:53:10PM -0400, Kaganoff via Avodah wrote:
: For many years i had extreme difficulty with R. Elchanan Wasserman understanding
: as it conflicted with my belief that Judaism (and other religions) was not
: logically provable (contra to Moshe Mendelssohn and his contemporaries) and
: therefore required a "leap of faith" and that a disbeliever could not be
: faulted for failing to take such a jump.

This is a false dichotomy. Logically proving things are not the only
way to justify belief in there.

How do you know that (in a flat space) two parallel lines never meet? If
you're like me, you pictured it in your head. Even though infinite lines
don't exist in the real world. (Nor, does it turn out, does flat space.)

Did you figure out that oppression was evil by logical proof, or by a
combination of imagination and empathy?

My favorite example is answering the question, "Do elephants have hair?"
A logical/verbal approach would be: Elephants are mammals, all mammals
have hair, and so unless elephants are the exception to the rule, they
must have hair. Elephants are well known and discussed animals. Could
they be an exception to the rule and I don't know it? Nah, they must
have hair.

How it is more likely the question jogged your memory of elephants
you saw, or saw pictures of. The detail may be blurry, so you may have
to manipulate the picture a bit. Finally, a version of the picture
which has a tuft of hair at the tail, maybe (if your memory is good)
some downy hair around the eyes and ears, strikes you as the most
familiar, the most real. And again you could reach the conclusion that
elephants have hair.

(See <http://www.aishdas.org/asp/ruach-memalela> for some musings about
the two modes of thought I'm contrasting here.)

In <http://www.aishdas.org/asp/argument-by-design-ver-40> I compare
different versions of the Argument from Design from R' Aqiva's response
to the apiqoreis through the Rambam, through similar approaches based
on more modern science.

    "G-d created" (Gen. 1:1): A hereic came to Rabbi Aqiva and asked,
    "Who made the universe?". Rabbi Aqiva answered, "HQBH". The heretic
    said, "Prove it to me." Rabbi Aqiva said, "Come to me tomorrow".

    When the heretic returned, Rabbi Aqiva asked, "What is that you
    are wearing?"

    "A garment", the unbeliever replied.

    "Who made it?"

    "A weaver."

    "Prove it to me."

    "What do you mean? How can I prove it to you? Here is the garment,
    how can you not know that a weaver made it?"

    Rabbi Akiva said, "And here is the world; how can you not know that
    Haqadosh barukh Hu made it?"

    After the heretic left, Rabbi Aqiva's students asked him, "But what is
    the proof?" He said, "Even as a house proclaims its builder,a garment
    its weaver or a door its carpenter, so does the world proclaim the
    Holy Blessed One Who created it.

Not very rigorous. Rabbi Aqiva's reply revolves around giving a parable
to make the conclusion self-evident. Not contructing a deductive argument.

The more rigorous we try making it, the more arguable the proof becomes.
R' Aqiva's argument is far more convincing than the Rambam's statement
based on how objects lose form over time, not gain it. Or a similar
argument based on thermodynamics or information theory.

(Ironically, every formal / logical proof is built from givens taken
as self-evident for informal-reasoning reasons.)

Anyway, that's how I understood REW. R' Elchanan argues that on an
informal level, the idea that the universe had to have a Creator is
as obvious as a Euclidean postulate or the injustice of oppression.

To not believe in G-d requires a formal proof, which one's negios then
determine if they find it sound or specious,  and whether they accept
the postulates on which it's built.

Notice I didn't invoke any leaps of faith.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 24th day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        3 weeks and 3 days in/toward the omer.
http://www.aishdas.org   Tifferes sheb'Netzach: When does domination or
Fax: (270) 514-1507        taking control result in balance and harmony?