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<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span
style="font-size: 8pt;">1. RMS
(Mon, </span><st1:date year="2012" day="17" month="12"><span
style="font-size: 8pt;">17 Dec 2012</span></st1:date><span
style="font-size: 8pt;">) claims
regarding the Rambam's stand on miracles:</span><o:smarttagtype
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name="date">
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style="font-size: 8pt;">...what
is quite clear that this priniciple is extended /in dealing
with any issue of a
miracle<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>- one does
one's best to explain
it away - unless there is such a clear and irrevocable
tradition that it is
literal (not merely a lack of a tradition of allegory)./<span
style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>(the case of the mabul
would clearly be here
- with the question of what is meant by specifically
explained and impossible
to explain it otherwise, as the mabul seems to violate olam
keminhago
noheg...).</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><o:p> <br>
</o:p></span></p>
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style="font-size: 8pt;">I
will deal with the paragraph RMS repeatedly cites to support
this view that the
Rambam holds that ‘’in dealing with any issue of a
miracle—one does one’s best
to explain it away...’’ and will show it is based on an
incorrect translation.
But we need only look a little further on in the Maamar
Techias HaMeisim (Sheilat
p. 367, lines 9-18) to see very clearly that RMS’ notion is
the exact opposite
(not only of Ibn Tibbon’s stand, as seen the work RMS has
graciously called our
attention to, but even more openly) of the Rambam’s stand.
This is what the
Rambam say,s speaking about miracles in general and the
miracle of techias
ha-maiesim in particular*:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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style="font-size: 8pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span
style="font-size: 8pt;">We
have already explained in Moreh Nevuchim, when speaking of
the world being
created [rather than having an eternal past], that the
belief in Creation
necessarily entails the possibility of all miracles. The
resurrection of the
dead will therefore be possible as well. /And everything
that is possible, when
a prophet reports it—we will believe it, and we have no need
to interpret it,
and we do not take it out of peshuto./*<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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style="font-size: 8pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><span
style="font-size: 8pt;">Any miracle reported by a prophet.</span></p>
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style="font-size: 8pt;">We will believe it. (And it is not
in violation of ''olom k'minhago holeich'')<br>
</span></p>
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style="font-size: 8pt;">There is no need to allegorize it.<br>
</span></p>
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style="font-size: 8pt;">I
think this is enough to show that the Rambam held the
precise opposite of the
notion that ‘’in dealing with any issue of a miracle<span
style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>- one does one's best
to explain it away.’’
But for the sake of savoring the Rambam’s words, let’s go
on:</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><o:p> <br>
</o:p></span></p>
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2.25pt;padding:0in;
mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in"><span style="font-size:
8pt;">True,
we need to interpret something whose peshuto is an
impossibility, such as
[pesukim whose literal meaning attributes] physicality to
Hashem. But that
which is possible—stands as it is. ...</span><span
style="font-size: 8pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span
style="font-size: 8pt;"><o:p><br>
</o:p></span></p>
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style="font-size: 8pt;">This
is why the Rambam absolutely does /not/ explain away
miracles, and accepts, on
the basis of the peshat of the pesukim alone (as long as it
does not contradict
fundamental principles), all the miracles written about by
Moses and all the
other prophets, including the miracles that proved to Israel
and Pharoah that
Moses was Hashem’s prophet, the Egyptian plagues, the
splitting of the sea, and
so on.</span></p>
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</o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype
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style="font-size: 8pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span
style="font-size: 8pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;tab-stops:45.8pt
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style="font-size: 8pt;">2. So,
what of the paragraph RSM cites to prove that Rambam held
that ‘’/in dealing
with any issue of a miracle<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">
</span>- one does
one's best to explain it away - unless there is such a clear
and irrevocable
tradition that it is literal (not merely a lack of a
tradition of allegory)./’’
Is the Rambam contradicting himself? Well, let’s investigate
RSM’s translation:</span><o:smarttagtype
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name="date"></o:smarttagtype><br>
</p>
</o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype
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name="date">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;tab-stops:45.8pt
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style="font-size: 8pt;">And
our efforts our to gather between the torah and the
reasonable,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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style="font-size: 8pt;">and
will manage all things according to a possible natural
order,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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style="font-size: 8pt;">except
/what is specifically explained that it is a miracle
(mofet)/<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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style="font-size: 8pt;">and
it is impossible to explain it otherwise, then we will need
to say<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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style="font-size: 8pt;">that
it is a miracle<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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style="font-size: 8pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span
style="font-size: 8pt;">The
translation, ‘’except what is specifically explained that it
is a miracle
(mofet)’’ leads one to one wonder who it is that needs to do
the specific
explaining? Is it Chazal that must specifically insist that
something was a
miracle, and otherwise one is free to allegorize the miracle
away?</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><o:p> <br>
</o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops:45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt
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style="font-size: 8pt;">Well,
the question is really irrelevant, because the translation
is wrong. The words
RSM translates as ‘’what is /specifically explained/ that it
is a miracle
(mofet),’’ are actually, ellah mah /sheh-hiss-ba-er bo/
she-hu mofes.
‘’/Sheh-hiss-ba-er/ bo’’ translates, ‘’what is itself
clear.’’<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I.e., the
peshat of the posuk indicates it is
depicting a miracle. Just as Rambam says in the later
paragraph I cited above.</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><o:p>
<br>
</o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops:45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt
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style="font-size: 8pt;">And,
as the Rambam says there, /that/ is what ‘’makes it
impossible to
(legitimately) explain it otherwise’’ (‘’v’lo yi-tachen
l’faresh klall’’). The
Rambam’s objection is to inventing the occurrence of
miracles where the
pesukim’s peshat, or Chazal (for example regarding , do not
warrant it.</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><o:p> <br>
</o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops:45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt
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style="font-size: 8pt;">(This
also eliminates objections that one would otherwise raise:</span><span
style="font-size: 8pt;"><o:p> <br>
</o:p></span></p>
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style="font-size: 8pt;">(a)
If the impossibility of allegorizing the miracles is based
upon some statements
by Chazal that explicitly point out that particular pesukim
are really, really
talking about miracles—why does the Rambam explicitly accept
that pesukim that
enjoy no such special treatment are describing miracles
(although that would of
course be sufficient grounds, as well.) What miracles enjoy
less sponsorship by
Chazal, that the Rambam thereupon discounts versus other
miracles that enjoy
more Chazal-sponsorship?</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><o:p>
<br>
</o:p></span></p>
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style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>(b)
It is never absolutely impossible to
invent an allegorical meaning for any posuk. It can and has
been done with virtually
all pesukim by Allegorists for centuries.</span><span
style="font-size: 8pt;"><o:p> <br>
</o:p></span></p>
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style="font-size: 8pt;">So,
in response to RSM’s accusation that,</span><span
style="font-size: 8pt;"><o:p> <br>
</o:p></span></p>
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style="font-size: 8pt;">RZL;s
position has far more to do with current haredi<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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style="font-size: 8pt;">sensibilities
than with the rambam (one remembers the rambam's parable of<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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style="font-size: 8pt;">the
palace and the role of talmudic scholars)</span><span
style="font-size: 8pt;"><o:p> <br>
</o:p></span></p>
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style="font-size: 8pt;">I
will point out that the Rambam’s parable does not license
distorting his words
and reading into them notions that he explicitly disparages.
The fact that some
people interpreted the Rambam to mean the opposite of what
he held is a
phenomenon the Rambam himself experienced and complained
about in the very
Ma’amar Techias HaMeisim under discussion. Unfortunately, it
haunts us to this
day.</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><o:p> <br>
</o:p></span></p>
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style="font-size: 8pt;">Zvi
Lampel<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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8pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
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style="font-size: 8pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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style="font-size: 8pt;">*See
(Shiat p. 366, lines 9-20):</span><span style="font-size:
8pt;"><o:p> <br>
</o:p></span></p>
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style="font-size: 8pt;">There
is no difference between it saying, ‘’If a man dies, shall
he live?!” and
’Shall we bring out water from the rock?!’—for this would be
not natural, but
impossible; yet the waters did indeed go out of the rock
through a miracle!
...And there is no difference between it saying, ‘’Shall a
Cushite change his
skin?!’’ and it saying, ‘’Shall the dead perform a
wonder?!’’—yet the hand [of
Moses] did indeed turn a [leprous] white in color! So if
someone would say it
is impossible for a lifeless object to propel itself in
movement, he would be
saying the truth according to what is in [the realm of]
nature; but this
statement would not be denying the changing of ther staff to
a serpent, since
that was a miracle. It is likewise with all the pesukim you
may find in Tanach
that treat as far-fetched the notion of the dead returning
to life. That is
speaking in the realm of what is in nature. But that does
not contradict their
return to life when Hashem so wills it....You need not
interpret any of those
pesukim with those despicable interpretations, too
far-fetched to accept, which
one who denies the Resurrection uses to buttress his stand.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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style="font-size: 8pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span>Zvi Lampel<br>
</p>
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