[Avodah] intelligent design

Eli Turkel via Avodah avodah at lists.aishdas.org
Wed Aug 17 00:53:32 PDT 2016


> In any case, I am unhappy with the habit in some circles of pinning
> every yeshivish idea with which they disagree on REED. If nothing else,
> he was a mussarnik, not yeshivish. But I fear you were a victim of
> someone who spun this quote from MmE with this jaundiced eye.

The book "Strictly Kosher Reading" is by Yoel Finkelman. I tried
some searches on him and only found that that he has a PhD from Hebrew
University and teaches in Bar Ilan and also teaches Talmud and Jewish
thought at Midreshet Lindenbaum. Otherwise I know nothing about him.
In his book his references are to Strive to truth because that is the
English version. He obviously knows Hebrew and I would assume he read
the original Hebew.

The book (I personally enjoyed) discusses the popular literature among
charedim (mainly American). He has for example one chapter on books on
parenting. He shows that while the books claim to be based on ancient
Jewish ideas they are in fact mainly based on modern psychological trends
and similar to general culture books on the topic.

In the chapter under discussion he talks about books on theology. He
distinguishes between books aimed at "insiders" and those aimed at baale
teshuvot and other "outsiders". While some stress the idea of "emunah
peshuta" most stress that Judaism (as distinct from other religions)
is based on scientific proofs. In this chapter of some 30+ pages he
brings briefly R. Dessler which he brings as being as opposition to
basing things on science which is not reliable but rather relying on
Daas Torah. This is not a study of the thoughts of REED and again this
occupied a small portion of this single chapter.

...
>> We ordinary mortals, who are not blessed with the wisdom and insights
>> of Chazal, cannot make such pronouncements regarding any specific
>> episode or rabbinic advice. Nevertheless, we should take to heart
>> the essential message that there are times when the Divine Will
>> obscures an individual's wisdom.

> In his Mipeninai HaRav, R. Herschel Shachter quotes Rav Soloveitchik
> as having expressed this sentiment also.

I believe that the great majority of talmidim of RYBS were taught that
ultimately every talmid has to think for himself and not just accept
blindly what his rebbe and certainly not other great rabbis say

-- 
Eli Turkel



More information about the Avodah mailing list