[Avodah] Would Seforno be Comfortable with Evolution?

[Zev Sero]

On 8/1/21 3:57 pm, Micha Berger wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 07, 2021 at 06:57:06PM -0500, Zev Sero via Avodah wrote:
>>>       Mi nasan hahakhanos hativ'iyos bekoach teva ha'adam?
> 
>> I don't see the circumlocution.  He's saying that Hashem, when He created
>> the human species, gave it a nature of being able to talk..
> 
> He didn't say nasan koach hadibur. Hashem gave the natural prep in order for
> humans to have a power of speach. The wordiness, and the need to instroduce
> "hahakhanos" is what I was commenting on.

Because he's talking about human nature, not about individual humans. 
He didn't give humans a "power of speech", He made human nature such 
that humans can naturally speak.


>> Hashem tells him his premise is wrong.  The power of speech was given to Man
>> at creation, and is baked in to the specification for the whole species. "Mi
>> sam peh."  The fact that a person can speak is not the result of an
>> individual decision by Hashem....
> 
> Yotzeir or, not yatzar or. Hamchadeish betuvo. As someone with a Chabad
> background, you know the Besh"t on this better than I do. 10 maamaros
> implies that unlike the printed word, which exists after the writing is
> done, creation is like the spoken word -- Hashem is creating as long as
> the thing exists.

First of all, the Malbim was not a chassid, so he's not necessarily 
consistent with the Baal Shem Tov's ideas.  And in fact he does not seem 
to subscribe to the Baal Shem Tov's shita in Hashgacha Pratis.  He often 
writes that the punishment for not doing mitzvos is that Hashgacha 
Pratis is withdrawn and one is left to the mercy of the random forces of 
nature.

But in this instance there's no contradiction.  He's referring to when 
the decision was/is made that a person should be speaking or dumb. 
Hashem tells Moshe that He long ago made the decision that human nature 
would be to be able to speak, so the fact that an individual can speak 
doesn't mean anything.  It's the default human condition.  But "yasum 
ilem", as He creates each individual, He makes certain individuals 
deviate from the norm and be dumb, and that is always a deliberate 
decision regarding that individual, and therefore must be meaningful.

The fact that each person, whether speaking or dumb, is being constantly 
created isn't relevant to this point.


-- 
Zev Sero            Wishing everyone a *healthy* and happy 5781
zev at sero.name       "May this year and its curses end
                      May a new year and its blessings begin"