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<font size=3>At 09:02 AM 9/21/2012, R. Harry Maryles wrote on
Areivim:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">I have to say that RSRH devotee
Dayan Grunfeld - as interpreted below is not the mainstream understanding
of Yahdus in my view. To say that one does not believe in God but instead
"knows' God sounds almost like Apikursus!</font></blockquote><br>
[I am posting my response on Avodah where I think it belongs.
YL]<br><br>
<font size=3>When I told an erudite friend what Dayan Grunfeld had said
to his son, he replied, "In one place the RAMBAM says
one has to believe in Hashem and in another he says that one has to know
Hashem." I do not recall where he said this was
written.<br><br>
From
<a href="http://www.mhcny.org/pdf/Holidays/Shavuoth/7.pdf" eudora="autourl">
http://www.mhcny.org/pdf/Holidays/Shavuoth/7.pdf</a><br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>Is Belief in God a Mitzvah?
Maimonides on the First Commandment<br><br>
It behooves us, then, to explore what led our great teacher the Rambam to
count belief as a<br>
mitzvah, especially since the plain meaning of the Biblical verse does
not contain an element of<br>
commandment. In addition, the later commentators and philosophers raise
two string objections<br>
to the Rambam’s interpretation. Rav Hasdai Crescas, in the introduction
to his philosophical<br>
masterpiece Or Hashem, points out that it is circular reasoning to speak
of God commanding us<br>
to believe in God. No one can believe in God because God commanded him to
do so, for if he<br>
obeys God’s command, that means that he already believed in God anyway.
And if someone<br>
doesn’t already believe in God, then telling him that God commands belief
is irrelevant.<br>
Therefore, concludes Crescas, it is illogical for God to command that you
believe in Him.<br><br>
In addition, Crescas points out that commandment only applies to
volitional acts, and belief is<br>
decidedly involuntary. If you are convinced by the evidence, you are
forced to believe<br>
something, and if you have not found convincing evidence, you cannot
believe it with certainty.<br>
No threat, sanction, or command can make you believe something if you are
not convinced that it<br>
is true. To illustrate this objection with a contemporary example, I
cannot command you to<br>
believe the world is flat if you are not actually convinced by the
evidence I present, and even if I<br>
threaten you with the death penalty for disbelief, you may decide to lie
and say that you believe<br>
the world is flat, but you will never succeed in making yourself actually
believe it.<br><br>
From footnote 4<br><br>
In the Mishneh Torah, the only major work in which Rambam chose his own
Hebrew terminology,<br>
he consistently uses the root “de’ah” in this context and never “emunah”.
On this basis, both<br>
Rav Chaim Heller and Rav Yosef Kafah (in their respective editions of
Sefer HaMitzvot) argue<br>
compellingly for the translation “leida” in place of “lehaamin” in the
Sefer Hamitzvot.</font></body>
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