[Avodah] Judging The Credibility Of The Sages

[Jay F. Shachter]

> 
> Are you arguing that we need to know secular knowledge [s]o that we
> know when Chazal, rishonim or acharonim based their post-facto
> explanations are errors?  What's the deep value of that?  So that we
> question their wisdom about things that have nothing to do with
> emunas chakhamim and the fealty to the actual kelalei pesaq?
> 
> If you were arguing that we need to know what to pasqen about, not
> post-facto rationalizations that are in error but opinions of the
> metzi'us they are pasqening for... I agreed (and already posted)
> that a poseiq from LOR on up can't pasqen without knowing such
> things.  But the hamon am?

> 

It is always dangerous to believe things that are not true.

Not knowing something is an intellectual failing.  Not knowing what
you are talking about is a moral failing.  Making up an answer when
you do not know the answer is a moral failing.  Knowing when our sages
have displayed this moral failing makes you more able to see the same
moral failing in yourself.  It leads to self-awareness, and self-
correction.

At the same time, and this is not a contradiction, knowing both the
moral and the intellectual failings of our sages protects you from the
dangerous and deadly doctrine of das Torah.  You will rely on
yourself, in areas where you should rely on yourself.  In the 1930s,
the majority of gdolim in Europe were opposed to leaving Europe, and
advised Jews not to leave Europe.  The docrine of das Torah directly
caused the death of millions of Jews (this is hyperbole).

Members of this mailing list have, in the past, written on this
mailing list that our gdolim do not have perfect knowledge, but still
we must do what they say, because on whom else can we rely, if not on
our gdolim?  The answer is that you must rely on yourself.  Even in
matters of halakha you must rely on yourself, if you know the halakha,
even if all the gdolim are against you; it is the first Mishna in
Harayyoth.  Of course, you must have the intellectual honesty to admit
when they know the halakha better than you do.  Qal Vaxomer you must
rely on yourself when deciding whether to buy stock in General Motors.
If nothing else, ending the pernicious doctrine of das Torah will
increase variety in our behavior, and we want that, in matters where
the halakha does not demand uniformity of behavior, for the same
reason that we want genetic diversity in our crops.

That our sages can be wrong, and wrong about imporant things, we know
already from 1 Samuel 16:6.  But it helps if you can see it yourself,
and it helps to the extent that you can see for yourself, how often,
and how much, our sages have been wrong.  Otherwise you will take
literally midrashim that attribute 1 Samuel 16:6 to 1 Samuel 9:19 and
you will think that any time our sages are wrong it is an event that
requires supernatural explanation.

Moreover, knowing how often and how much our sages have been wrong,
and thus reducing the perceived distance between you and them, makes
you more likely to understand, and to believe, that you can be like
them.  Every reader of this mailing list is able to be a Moshe, a
Xuldah, a Hillel.  Their intellectual achievements may be beyond your
abilities but their moral achievements are not.  Knowing that it is
a possibility will lead to your striving to make it a reality.  Some
of you will succeed.  Some of you will surpass them.

You will not do this if you think that our sages were of a different
species than you, if you think that Moshe was 6 meters tall, that
every Tanna had the ability to resurrect the dead, that a Talmid
Xakham of sufficient stature can look into the Torah and derive all
scientific truths from it, they could have found in the Torah a
vaccine for smallpox but they chose not to because plagues bring us
closer to God.  People with these characteristics are a different
species from you.  You will not strive to be like them, because you
will know that you do not have it in you to be like them.  You are
different, you are lesser, you are inherently flawed, all you can do
is admire them, and obey them, but you cannot equal them, or surpass
them.

There are reasons for a secular education (which was the original
topic of the thread that led to the current posting), other than
bringing us to a correct judgement of the credibility of our sages,
that have not been mentioned on this mailing list.  Secular education
inculcates the empirical mode of thought, which is indispensible for
all innovation and all progress, even progress in Torah knowledge, and
progress in Torah knowledge is possible at least according to some
people, Samson Raphael Hirsch believed that he knew the reason for the
Parah Adumah.  Without the empirical mode of thought, no well-grounded
innovations, no innovations based on reality, will ever occur.  There
is a member of this mailing list who is very intelligent, perhaps he
is the most intelligent member of this mailing list.  But he will
never create anything useful with his mind, because he believes that
he has a religious obligation to believe in dibbuks.


                Jay F. ("Yaakov") Shachter
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                "The umbrella of the gardener's aunt is in the house"