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On 11/20/2010 8:05 PM, RMB wrote:<br>
<pre>> But if the mishnah says we can't comprehend maaseh Bereishis, than
> anything we understand to be the literal meaning of the verse's
> description of history is in error.
What mishna?
And how does your intepretation square with sources such as these:
</pre>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 10pt 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><span
style="color: black;">For we, the community following
in the footsteps of Moshe Rabbeynu and Avraham Avinu, aleihem
hashalom, believe
that the world came into being in such-and-such a form, and
became
such-and-such from such-and-such (<i>haya kach mi-kach)</i>, and
such was
created after such (Moreh Nevuchim 2:17),</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 10pt;"><span style="color:
black;"> <b><i>Midrash
Shemos Rabbah</i></b><i> </i>(30:9) recording <b>Onkelos’</b>
marveling the fact
that <i>the youngest Jewish children know “how the
Holy-One-Blessed-be-He
created the world.─They know what was created the first day
and what was
created the second day, how much [time] there is since the
world was created,
and what [good deeds] sustain the world. And their Torah is
true.”</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 10pt;"><span style="color:
black;">And the <b>Ramban</b>
citing this <i>Midrash</i> to illustrate that “the Torah ‘opens
one’s eyes,’ <i>for
it reveals to us the secret of the Formation, the subject of
Maaseh Breishis,
the Creation and Formation of the Universe</i>,”<br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 10pt;">not to mention the
Ramban insisting that the days of MB were regular says like those
after them, consisting of minutes and hours, plus the numerous
other rishonim who very clearly take the days of MB such, and
argue over whether the Nachash was a snake or the Yetzer Hara?<br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 10pt;">Were all these
rishonim who understood the peshat meaning of MB as a description
of history in error and in violation of your mishna?<br>
<span style="color: black;"></span><b><span style="font-size:
10pt; font-family: Arial;"></span></b></p>
<pre>
Zvi Lampel
</pre>
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