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<DIV>In a message dated 2/15/2009, Larry.Levine@stevens.edu writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=3><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>>>This man Moshe worked<BR>himself to
exhaustion and could not, on his own, organize such a basic<BR>institution, or
one similar to it, so beneficial to himself, to the people,<BR>and to the
matter at hand. This man, who needed Yisro’s counsel to<BR>appoint judges,
could not have invented statutes and laws and given<BR>them to the people.
This man was strictly the faithful instrument of<BR>God; he told the people
God’s Word — and nothing more.<< [--from Commentary of
RSRH]<BR><BR>>>I find this description of the abilities of Moshe
Rabbeinu difficult to reconcile with my "gut" impressions of him as a "giant"
of a man. On the other hand, I have wondered from time to time why Moshe
himself did not institute a system similar to the one suggested by Yisro
before Yisro arrived. <BR><BR>I would be interested to hear what others think
about this.<<<BR><X-SIGSEP>
<P></X-SIGSEP>Yitzchok Levine</FONT> </FONT></FONT></P></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<DIV>>>>>></DIV>
<DIV>One of Hirsch's purposes in writing his magnificent Commentary on Chumash
was to answer the Reformers and the Bible Critics, the promoters of the
Documentary Hypothesis. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>He did not deign to actually name or quote any of those heretics --
why give them such credibility, and why immortalize their names in a work of
Torah that he hoped would prove timeless? However, throughout his
Commentary there are many subtle arguments against the heretics, and this
example is typical. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>He is pointing out, in case anybody buys into the theory that Moshe
Rabbeinu himself made up the Torah, that Moshe was incapable of creating such a
complex system himself. He could not even think of a hierarchical system
of judges, how could he ever have thought up the whole system of laws in the
Torah? </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The Torah contains within itself clues to its Divine authorship. The
story of Yisro and the advice he gave his son-in-law is one of many such clues
scattered throughout the Written Torah -- clues that Moshe or another human
being couldn't have written the Torah, clues that there had to be an Oral Torah
along with the Written Torah, and so on -- and Hirsch was brilliant at spotting
and highlighting these clues.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff><BR></FONT><B><FONT color=#0000ff>--Toby
Katz<BR>==========<BR><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#000000 size=2
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