[Avodah] How to teach emuna

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Wed, Aug 17, 2016 at 11:26:19AM +0300, Marty Bluke via Avodah wrote:
: Actually if you look in Tanach the revelation at Sinai is basically ignored
: until Nechemia. The Neviim while mentioning yetzias mitzrayim never mention
: matan torah at Har Sinai...                                           It
: seems that this was not the foundational event that the Kuzari proof claims
: it was.

There are two positions I would want to keep distinct:

1- The appeal to tradition, which I believe was R' Yehudah haLevi's intent.
and
2- The Kuzari Principle, which is a 20th cent converson of the Kuzari's
point into something more rigorous philosophically by trying to prove
that such traditions can't be faked. Or that even claiming a National
Revalation is a globally unique tradition. And the like.

In the Kuzari (1:11), the chaver defines his Deity as "E-lokei Avraham,
Yitzchaq veYaaqov" who took the Jews out of Mitzrayim with osos and
mofesim, fed them in the Midbar, apportioned them the land of Kenaan,
sent them Moshe with His Torah, and after him thousands of nevi'im...

Maamud Har Sinai and its national nature don't get mention until 1:87,
discussing the meaning of Shabbos.

    ... They also saw Moses enter it and emerge from it; they distinctly
    heard the Ten Commandments, which represent the very essence of
    the Law. One of them is the ordination of Sabbath, a law which had
    previously been connected with the gift of the Manna. The people
    did not receive these ten commandments from single individuals,
    nor from a prophet, but from God, only they did not possess the
    strength of Moses to bear the grandeur of the scene. Henceforth the
    people believed that Moses held direct communication with God, that
    his words were not creations of his own mind, that prophecy did not
    (as philosophers assume) burst forth in a pure soul, become united
    with the Active Intellect (also termed Holy Spirit or Gabriel),
    and be then inspired. They did not believe Moses had seen a vision
    in sleep, or that some one had spoken with him between sleeping
    and waking, so that he only heard the words in fancy, but not with
    his ears, that he saw a phantom, and afterwards pretended that God
    had spoken with him. Before such an impressive scene all ideas of
    jugglery vanished. The divine allocution was followed by the divine
    writing....

I would say Rihal finds a role in national revelation to buttress our
belief in the Divine origin of the Torah, but not G-d's existence to
begin with.

Apiqursus -- denial of creation; meenus -- denial of personal or national
redemption; kefiah -- denial of revalation. Maamad Har Sinai is the
bullwark against kefirah.

In Shemos 19:9 Hashem does say that He will be speaking to Moshe with
everyone in the audience "vegam bekha ya'aminu le'olam". So it seems
Ma'amad Yar Sinai was designed to be a cornerstone of our faith (but
I would not necessarily say in the KP sense), in that Torah miSinai is
indeed a cornerstone.

Similarly Devarim 5:8-10, "Umi goy gadol asher lo chuqim umishpatim
... Hishamer lekha ... pen tishkach es hadevarim asher ra'u einekha
... Yom ashe amadta lifnei H' Elokeikha bechoreiv..."

Which would mean that nevi'im, who are trying to evince basic
mentchlachkeit and monotheism out of the masses wouldn't need to invoke
Har Sinai. That's only for people whose message is "... so follow halakhah
already"! Their message was more Avraham's than Moshe's.

In contrast to an introduction to mishnah, where the point is belief
that all the complexity of halakahh is from G-d. There wone would expect
something like, "Moshe qibel Torah miSinai, umaserah liYhoshua..."

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where
micha at aishdas.org        you are,  or what you are doing,  that makes you
http://www.aishdas.org   happy or unhappy. It's what you think about.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                        - Dale Carnegie