[Avodah] Normal People Don't Care About Those Things/13 ikrim

[Toby Katz]

In Avodah Digest, Vol 44, Issue 4 dated 1/20/2026R'n Ilana Elzufon wrote:ֲ ֲ 
> To the best of my knowledge, Rav Moshe Mendelssohn himself was mostdefinitely Orthodox

This was followed by an extended scholarly discussion among many members
here, astonishing in its irrelevance. Who even bothers with Mendelssohn
anymore? There's a Hirsch Chumash in almost every Torah home..The
most important thing to know about Mendelssohn is that he translated
the Torah into German in order to teach Jews German (so that they could
prove themselves worthy of German citizenship). Jews knew Chumash. They
didn't know German..Half a century later, Hirsch translated the Torah
into German in order to teach Jews Torah. German Jews knew German. They no
longer knew Chumash..In the long arc of Jewish history, whose project was
more needed? Who was more successful? Whose work was infused with kedusha?

[Email #2 -micha]

In Avodah Digest, Vol 44, Issue 5ֲ dated 1/25/2026 R Meir Shinnar writes:ֲ 
> However, wrt to your answer about the 13 ikkarim -- we have been down
> that road before........wrt the 13 ikkarim.  Eg, forbidding prayer
> to angels -- while some people try to rewrite piyutim, most of us still
> say shalom Aleichem with (barchuni leshalom)....

We have indeed been down that road many many times before and the issue
has never made sense to me. If I ask a tzaddik to give me a bracha,
that's called davening to him?

--Toby--
Toby Katz <t613k at aol.com>