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<DIV><EM>CM wrote:</EM></DIV>
<DIV><EM>>Actual the Babylonians and Greeks had better values than the ones
used<BR>in shas. It is safe to assume that chazal knew these values that
well<BR>preceded the time of the mishna and gemara even if you choose to
assume<BR>that chazal only knew what the intelligencia of their day knew
in<BR>science. They chose to use these rounded values since these approx.
were<BR>sufficient halachakly and easier for the less sophisticated hamon am
to<BR>use. <BR></EM></DIV>
<DIV>RSK responded:<BR>Why do we assume Chazal had a good "secular" education,
and more<BR>particularly, since we are dealing with shiurim to be yotzeh
according<BR>to halacha, why would chazal NOT be as precise as possible?
Again, see<BR>the gemara I cited.<BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I [CM] respond:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><STRONG>I take it as an article of faith, that at
the very least, chazal, our intelligencia, was no less knowledgeable in the
secular fields of knowledge than the best of any other nation. Why would you
assume otherwise? We can produce Einsteins today, but not then? (The obvious
counter examples of our day where many gedolim do not have such knowledge is a
discussion for another day).</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><STRONG></STRONG></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial size=2>As to your second point, "<FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3>why would chazal NOT be as precise as
possible?" You misunderstood my comment. They were precise in halacha, not
mathematically. That is to say, The precise value halachakly is 3 (not
3.1415...), The precise mathematical value, in discussions of halacha, IS
the approximation to the correct halachik value of 3. (Presumably the Torah
adopted this value of 3 rather than pi for halachik calculations due to its
ease of use. But for halachik purposes it is the correct value, not an
approximation, just don't expect a real circle to close by use of this
value).</FONT></FONT><BR></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV>KVT</DIV>
<DIV>Chaim Manaster</DIV>
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