<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
<title></title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
RMB wrote:<br>
<br>
>As for RAK's handbook, here's the quote:<br>
…There are four conditions under which there is a tradition that
the<br>
Torah is not to be taken according to its literal meaning: [181]<br>
1. Where the plain meaning is rejected by common experience.<br>
2. Where it is repudiated by obvious logic. [182]<br>
3. Where it is contradicted by obvious scripture.<br>
4. Where it is opposed by clear Talmudic tradition. [183]<<br>
<br>
>…But more importantly, we aren't talking about literal vs
allegory.<br>
<br>
Yom literally means era, as in "lifnei ba yom Hashem hagadol
vehanora".<<br>
<br>
Actually, Radak (Yoel 3:3 referring to Yoel 2:11) says that the "Yom
Hashem HaGadol V'HaNora" is the day of Gog and Magog's downfall.
Sounds like a specific (V-)day.<br>
<br>
RMB:<br>
>Or a more significant example to our case, in Bereishis 2:4, the
creation<br>
era is called a yom -- "beyom asos H' E-lokim eretz veshamayim" --<br>
not 7 of them!<br>
<br>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
</w:Compatibility>
<w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
</style>
<![endif]-->
>But more importantly, we aren't talking about literal vs.
allegory.<<br>
<br>
True, we're not talking about literal vs. allegory; but about
literal (i.e., peshat) meaning. But there are rules for determining
correct literal meaning as well. Rav Saadia Gaon, the Rambam and the
Ikkarim explicitly, and others implicitly, maintain the meaning of
the word must be its primary meaning, unless it transgresses one of
the rules you mentioned. There is a hierarchy of meanings that must
be followed: Preferably primary; with cause (such as those you
listed), non-primary.<br>
<br>
This is clear from the first chelek of Moreh Nevuchim.<br>
<br>
Here’s what the Sefer Ikkarim writes. <br>
<br>
'IKKARIM, CHAPTER 21 (pp.192-194)<br>
<br>
"The Torah is called a "testimony" (aidus --Ex. 25:21 and Ps.
132:12). This is to signify that the Torah must be understood by
pashtus (the normal meaning of its words), just as the testimony of
witnesses:<br>
<br>
"When witnesses testify, we do not say, let's tweak the time or
interpret the testimony to keep the witnesses innocent of perjury.
To illustrate: let's say they testified that Reuven killed Shimon on
the first day of the week, and then their testimony is proved false.
We do not say, let's interpret their testimony to prevent them from
being false witnesses. Let's say that by "on the first day of the
'week' " they meant on the first of the seven-year sabbatical cycle
(the "week" of years). Or let's say that by "he killed him" they
meant he refused to give him alms, which would support him; or they
meant he did not teach him the Torah, [which is, after all,] the
true source of life in the World to Come. We do not say any of this
because a testimony must be understood naturally, and if witnesses
are shown to have given false testimony, they must be put to death,
and we do not interpret their words in ways to save them...<br>
<br>
Just wondering: Let’s say someone refrains from melacha on shabbos
thinking that he’s commemorating that Hashem "made the heavens and
earth into seven seas" (yamim can mean “seas,” you know—/I can prove
it from rishonim/!) and has that in mind when he says “Ki Sheyshess
Yamim, Asah Hashem Ess HaShamayyim V’ess HaAretz.” Is he gaining the
concept Shabbos is meant to teach? Does it matter? <br>
<br>
Let’s say, when reciting Kiddush, or davening Sh’meoneh Essray, or
learning Chumash, he thinks that “U-bayom HaSh’vi’iShavas
VaYinafash,” means that "during the day, the seventh sphere stopped
working" ("U-bayom, “HaSh’vi’i” shavvas VaYinafash"). Does it
matter?<br>
<br>
Zvi Lampel<br>
<br>
</body>
</html>