<div><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face="Arial" color="#000000" size="2"><em>>>Some people think that if you say Chazal or Ramban or the Sefer Hachinuch were wrong about some scientific fact, then you are being disrespectful to them. I was raised with a completely different understanding and a different attitude. I would add that if they did refer to the highest standards of scientific knowledge of their own time, that is a siman that we, too, should follow their example and apply the highest standards of scientific knowledge of our time. Who was it who said, "Chachma bagoyim ta'amin"? Not some modern maskil or Reform rabbi.</em></font></div>
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<div><br><b><em>--Toby Katz<<<br></em></b></div></font><br>
<div><em>I believe "Chachma bagoyim ta'amin" </em>Is immediately followed by the contrasting phrase "<em><strong>Torah bagoyim al ta'amin</strong>". </em>It implies that the norm is one of <strong>conflict</strong> and lack of equation. Secular wisdom does NOT easily translate into Torah wisdom.</div>
<div>Incorporating an extraneous methodology for discovering truth outside the Torah is fraught with dangers and pitfalls. One should never confuse "the highest standards of scientific knowledge" (chochma) with <strong>Torah</strong> as the author above seems to have done. </div>
<div>When Chazal or rishonim do incorporate secular wisdom into their interpretations of Torah, it goes without saying that they were quite selective in what they were accepting. (It follows that they only accepted ideas that, although may not be empirically verifiable to us, were at least guaranteed to be compatible with what the Torah says on the subject. This is more important -and more educational to us- than getting the science right.)</div>
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<div> The Moreh Nevuchim is a clear illustration of how the Rambam went through a pain-staking careful process in screening out non-Jewish ideas were compatible with true Torah hashkafa of Chazal and which must be rejected.</div>
<div> It cannot conceivably be used as a blank check to be open to everything that is considered well established by modern science. </div>
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<div>Dovid Kornreich <br></div>
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<div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Feb 14, 2008 at 10:21 PM, <<a href="mailto:T613K@aol.com">T613K@aol.com</a>> wrote:<br>
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<div><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face="Arial" color="#000000" size="2">From: Gershon Seif <a href="mailto:gershonseif@yahoo.com" target="_blank">gershonseif@yahoo.com</a><br><br>>>Anyone ever see what the Sefer HaChinuch writes about why women who give birth to a boy are in Nidah for a week but for a girl it's 2 weeks?....<br>
<br>....The problem is that he then quotes a Ramban and says that this is exactly what the Ramban is saying too..... Are we left saying the Ramban got it wrong? Or he meant something else and we don't understand? Or the chinuch had a different approach to learning Ramban? <<</font></div>
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<div><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face="Arial" color="#000000" size="2">>>>>><br>I just don't understand this whole tzimmes. What's the big deal about saying Ramban might have been wrong about something? There are plenty of times that other meforshim disagree with Ramban about this and that.</font></div>
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<div><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face="Arial" color="#000000" size="2">This particular question is moot anyway because no modern woman bleeds for only a week after the birth of a baby. The norm is several weeks.</font></div>
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