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<blockquote
cite="mid:mailman.11658.1313345093.21725.avodah-aishdas.org@lists.aishdas.org"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">RDC:</pre>
</blockquote>
<The Ramban is particularly hard to decipher because he is not a
full blown adherent of the Kalam - - he does think that nature
exists as more than a delusion, but he also thinks that God
regularly overrules nature (in fact, he thinks that the overruling
itself follows laws).><br>
<br>
--only in the same way the Rambam does: that Hashem makes nature
react favorably or unfavorably in response to man's actions.<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
bold"><span style="mso-list:Ignore"><span style="font:7.0pt
"Times New Roman""></span></span></span><span
dir="LTR"><b>The Rambam</b> in <i>Ma’amar
Techiass HaMeisim</i>, citing <i>pesukim</i> and <i
style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal">Chazal</i>, distinguishes between miracles that
involve the change of
the nature of things, and those that merely manipulate natural
possibilities
without making changes in the intrinsic make-up of things.
(E.g., they either
intensify natural events, make natural processes uniquely effect
specific locales
or peoples, or make different natural phenomena coincide.) The
former, alone,
are “inherently non-natural.” And the Rambam insists that such
“changes-of-nature” type miracles last only temporarily, and
that those things
whose nature changed must eventually revert to their former
nature —the same
point he made in the <i>Moreh. </i>(He adds that this serves
to strengthen
their status as miracles). On these grounds, he rejects a
literal understanding
of “the lion living peacefully with the lamb” in messianic
times, because that
entails a non-reverting and forwardly ongoing change, for an
indefinite time,
in the nature of beasts.</span> <br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">(2) <b>The Ramban, </b>concerning this
rejection of the
literal meaning of “the lion living peacefully with the lamb” in
messianic
times, raises two objections, one based on authority, and one
based on logic: <br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">(a)<span
style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span><span
dir="LTR">A <i>braissa</i> has talmudic authorities taking the
peaceful lion <i>pesukim</i>
literally</span> <br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1
lfo1;
tab-stops:list .5in"><span style="mso-bidi-language:HE"><span
style="mso-list:Ignore">(b)<span style="font:7.0pt "Times
New Roman"">
</span></span></span><span dir="LTR">The Rambam, as stated
above,
admits that some miracles can last permanently once initiated,
such as that of nature
reacting to man’s behavior in a pattern of reward and
punishment. The Ramban
asks: Since the Rambam so admits that <i>/some</i>/ phenomena
that are miracles
can last permanently, and that temporariness is not necessarily
a factor for a
miracle to exist, why not allow that to be so for <i>all </i>kinds
of miracles
across the board? Why create a distinction in durability between
two types of
miracles? The Ramban is not pointing out a shift in the Rambam’s
position. He
is pointing out what he believes to be an unnecessary factor in
the Rambam’s
formula: namely, that according to the Rambam’s consistent view
regarding the “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">efshar</i>”
(feasible) type of miracles,
explicated in <i>Ma’amar Techiyas HaMeisim</i>, the Rambam
admits that miracles
don’t <i>/by definition</i>/ have to be temporary. That
admission, according to
the Ramban, leaves it unnecessary to posit imposed temporariness
on <i>any</i>
miracles, including the “non-<i>efshar</i>” type. The Ramban, <i>contra</i>
Rambam, does not accept that the <i>pesukim</i> and <i>Chazal</i>
saying that
nothing is new under the sun, and that the world runs according
to nature, compels
one to make an unbreakable rule that Hashem will never enact
permanent changes
in the natures of things. There is therefore no reason, the
Ramban says, for
the Rambam to deny the literal interpretation of the <i>pesukim</i>
describing
a permanent change in the nature of beasts in the messianic era.</span><span
style="mso-bidi-language:HE"></span></p>
Zvi Lampel<br>
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