[Avodah] How to teach emuna

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Tue, Aug 09, 2016 at 01:02:21PM +0300, Efraim Yawitz via Avodah wrote:
:> Yoshiahu's and Ezra's revivals are two of the most famous
:> counter-examples of the Kuzari Principle -- and they're from our own
:> history!

: I'm not sure I'm ready to accept that these are "counter-examples".  Do we
: have evidence that the "non-frum" in the days of Yoshiahu or Ezra denied
: that their great-great-grandparents or whatever
: did believe in the facts of Yetzias Mitzrayim and Matan Torah? ...

Things today are not as bad as then. Even in some of bayis rishon's
better times, most were ovedei AZ. So in the worse times, fewer had
traditional grandparents to remember.

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.

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

The mesorah was entirely broken. R Moshe Benovitz's assumption that Matan
Torah was no better remembered than the alphabet compelling. But it
needn't be; the fact that it's a plausible understanding of Tanakh that
Yehoach or AkH had to start again from scratch is enough to defuse the
usability of a proof that is based on assuming it can't be done.
After all, RMF is talking about polemics, how to teach emunah, not
whether or not a given proof actually is valid in the abstract. So,
we can disagree about the validity of the misnamed Kuzari Principle
and still agree with his point that insisting a student accept it is
ineffective at sparking emunah for the current generation.

(BTW, Rihal himself touches on this question, see the kings's words at
Kuzari 3:54.)

-Micha

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