<html>
<body>
<font size=3>At 01:12 PM 6/22/2011, R. Zev Sero wrote:<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">On 21/06/2011 1:17 PM, Prof.
Levine wrote:<br>
> Be this as it may, I have wondered more than once how the ARI
could<br>
> come along and change so many things and have these changes
accepted<br>
> by many communities. It is all the more surprising to me given that
he<br>
> lived for only 38 years according to many sources.<br><br>
It's because he didn't make anything up himself; everything he
taught<br>
came from his rebbe, Eliyohu Hanovi. He revealed secrets that had
not<br>
been known before him, so it's logical that people changed their<br>
minhogim to bring them into line with these new revelations, just as<br>
the medical discoveries of the past 200 years have caused everyone
to<br>
change their lifestyles.<br>
</font></blockquote><br>
RSRH comments on Devarim 30:12
"<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><b><i>It is not in heaven,
that you could say: Who shall go up for us to heaven and bring it to us,
and<br>
make us understand it so that we may carry it out?"<br><br>
</i></b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>The knowledge and
deeds that it has in mind are not in<br>
the realm of the supernatural, the celestial, and all the Divine
revelations<br>
necessary for understanding and fulfilling it have already been given
to<br>
us in their entirety; nothing of them remains in heaven. Hence, you
cannot<br>
say: Where will we find someone endowed with a superhuman spirit,<br>
who will penetrate into the secrets of heaven for us, or who will
bring<br>
down to us a new revelation from heaven, to complete our knowledge?<br>
Only if we find such a person endowed with the spirit of God will we
be<br>
able to fulfill the Torah in accordance with God’s Will.<br><br>
</font>IMO this contradicts what you have written about Eliyohu
HaNovi. Again, as R. A. Miller said many times about stories like
this, "We are not mechuyav to believe these stories."<br><br>
Rav Hirsch points out a number of times that it is not the Torah that is
to be changed to fit the times, but it is the job of the Jew to
"fit" the times to the Torah. Thus, it seems to me that
your remark about medical discoveries of the past 200 years causing
lifestyle changes is not relevant to Torah. <br><br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3>Yitzchok Levine</font></body>
</html>