[Avodah] How to teach emuna

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Tue, Aug 09, 2016 at 05:11:14PM -0400, Zev Sero via Avodah wrote:
: What makes you think that these ovdei AZ weren't also ovdei Hashem?  What
: makes you think they weren't boki beshas (or its then equivalent)?  These
: were *not* untraditional Jews.  They were active Jews who also worshipped
: AZ, because they had a strong yetzer hara to do so.

You mean like the guy who consecrated a potsherd to Havayah "and his
consort, Asheirah", found among the material the Waqf bulldozed off
Har haBayis? He may have worshipped a god named Y-HV-H, but to talk
about him as a source of remembering matan Torah is a stretch.

:> In Yoshiahu's day, the number of people who knew enough Torah to even
:> recognize one when they found one was small enough to qualify as a cabal.

: How do you know this?

It took Barukh to recognize it.

:> In Ezra's day, the masses had to relearn the the alphabet.

: Where is this written?

Sanhedrin 21b-22a. Shabbos 104a. Shakehechum vechazar veyasdum. Unless
you hold like Mar Zutra/Uqva and R Yossi who says this was the first use
of Ashuris for sta"m. (But both R' Sherira Gaon and R Hai Gaon reject R
Yossi's position. And the third position, aside from being listed last,
has the most names attached; pashut peshat is that it's the masqanah.

-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Zion will be redeemed through justice,
micha at aishdas.org        and her returnees, through righteousness.
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