[Avodah] maaseh avot siman lebanim

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Wed, Nov 25, 2015 at 3:41pm EST, Rn Toby Katz wrote:
: You can only base chiddushim on /something/ not on /nothing./  If you  want 
: to make Chushim into a bad guy instead of a good guy, you have to have some 
: kind of a source.

I would borrow RYBS's chiluq between shinui and chidush WRT halakhah:

Shinui runs counter to mesorah, chidush flows in the same direction,
but continues it further.

I do not know what this means where mesorah is silent. The more one knows
of mesorah, and the more one is immersed in its culture, the less often
one would think it actualy is entirely silent.

WRT aggadita too... We are more culturally removed by the authors of
the aggadita, and therefore less equipped to unpack the lesson out of
the story.

So here, I would end up agreeing with RnTK -- since there are voices
who better hear Chazal's way of thinking who assumed Chushim did the
right thing, the proposal to villainize his action needs some kind of
counter-source, something that implies the momentum behind your idea
already existed.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Mussar is like oil put in water,
micha at aishdas.org        eventually it will rise to the top.
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