[Avodah] Historicity of Aggadta

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Dec 24, 2017 at 12:41:29AM -0500, H Lampel via Avodah wrote:
: Under the subject line of Re: [Avodah] Did the Patriarchs Speak Hebrew?, 
: RSM raises a claim that RMB and I have argued over in the past. He writes,
: 
: > Medrashim of Chazal teaches us important ideas, but are not meant to
: > be literally true. They do not intend to be a historical document,
: > but rather contain important moral and ethical teachings which are
: > 'emes in the spiritual sense.

Which need not say anything about the story's lilterally truth. Just
that the story isn't *about* its literal historical claim, and therefore
doesn't testify to history one way or the other.

And so, I agree with:
: So, the Rambam does not maintain that the literal meaning of  /all/ 
: drashos is to be rejected. Some are indeed meant literally, and some are 
: not.

And yet still won't bother worrying about contradicting any medrash's
historical claims.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Life is a stage and we are the actors,
micha at aishdas.org        but only some of us have the script.
http://www.aishdas.org               - Rav Menachem Nissel
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