tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24211448.post4722406797230375573..comments2023-04-01T04:52:38.131-04:00Comments on Yehuda's Thoughts: God: Facsimile of our Ignorance or Infinitely Beyond our Grasp?Yehudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13012748301457819738noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24211448.post-61547181994020048792012-12-07T08:09:01.290-05:002012-12-07T08:09:01.290-05:00Yaakov
It is important to remember that Hazony is...Yaakov<br /><br />It is important to remember that Hazony is a victim of living in a dark age. His experience of Judaism is through the prism of academic Philosophy rather than Rambam, obviously. <br /><br />Academic Philosophy certainly has its place, but it is no substitute for the Mesorah of Mi'Moshe ad Moshe.<br /><br />As perhaps a quintessential victim of darkness in our age foretold by Mishe Rabbenu in Haazinu, Hazony may well have very valuable lessons to offer, by way of formulating the problems of our generation. <br /><br />To quote from his piece in the NYT:<br /><br />1. "Philosophers have spent many centuries trying to get God’s supposed perfections to fit together in a coherent conception, and then trying to get that to fit with the Bible. By now it’s reasonably clear that this can’t be done." Is this true? Is there a sense of "perfection" Rambam teaches that stands the test of time?<br /><br />2. In fact, part of the reason God-bashers like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris are so influential (apart from the fact they write so well) is their insistence that the doctrine of God’s perfections makes no sense, and that the idealized “being” it tells us about doesn’t resemble the biblical God at all. Is this bashing really applicable to Rambam as well?<br /><br />I think this is the thread Yehuda is exploring. Perhaps we could explore the problems Hazony raises more fully on the way to understanding the solution of the Mesorah Mimoshe ad Moshe?Rabbi Jonathan Sackshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06724954433302279666noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24211448.post-67515826731607465812012-12-06T00:26:29.973-05:002012-12-06T00:26:29.973-05:00This is a shame, I heard that he wrote a book on t...This is a shame, I heard that he wrote a book on the philosophy of tanach over the summer, but if he has such basic confusion about the yesod hayesodot it would seem that any of his "philosophy" and push to restore tanach as a philosophical book will be useless.Yaakovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11790728277413993602noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24211448.post-11554717688148945452012-12-05T10:01:29.690-05:002012-12-05T10:01:29.690-05:00Well said Yehuda. Hazony mistakes the primitive pr...Well said Yehuda. Hazony mistakes the primitive projection of psychological limitations on Hashem of חֲדָשִׁים מִקָּרֹב בָּאוּ -a Galut based based interpretive framework- for the true ancients, our Fathers who were the antithesis of such notions לֹא שְׂעָרוּם אֲבֹתֵיכֶם.<br /><br />This mistake of Hazony was already anticipated by Moshe Rabbenu in Haazinu. He foretold that the Ancients notion of a perfect God whose every act reflects justice would be confused with an alien notion.<br />32:1 Listen heaven! I will speak! Earth! Hear the words of my mouth! 32:2 My lesson shall drop like rain, my saying shall flow down like the dew - like a downpour on the herb, like a shower on the grass. 32:3 When I proclaim God's name, praise God for His greatness. 32:4 The deeds of the Mighty One are perfect, for all His ways are just. He is a faithful God, never unfair; righteous and moral is He. 32:5 Destruction is His children's fault, not His own, you warped and twisted generation. 32:6 Is this the way you repay God, you ungrateful, unwise nation? Is He not your Father, your Master, the One who made and established you? 32:7 Remember days long gone by. Ponder the years spanning all generations. Ask your father and let him tell you, and your grandfather, who will explain it. 32:8 When the Most High gave nations their heritage and split up the sons of man, He set up the borders of nations to parallel the number of Israel's descendants. 32:9 But His own nation remained God's portion; Jacob was the lot of His heritage. 32:10 He brought them into being in a desert region, in a desolate, howling wasteland. He encompassed them and granted them wisdom, protecting them like the pupil of His eye. 32:11 Like an eagle arousing its nest, hovering over its young, He spread His wings and took them, carrying them on His pinions. 32:12 God alone guided them; there was no alien power with Him. 32:13 He carried them over the earth's highest places, to feast on the crops of the field. He let them suckle honey from the bedrock, oil from the flinty cliff.<br />32 :14 [They had] the cheese of cattle, milk of sheep, fat of lambs, rams of the Bashan, and luscious fat wheat. They drank the blood of grapes for wine. 32:15 Jeshurun thus became fat and rebelled. You grew fat, thick and gross. [The nation] abandoned the God who made it and spurned the Mighty One who was its support. 32:16 They provoked His jealousy with alien practices; made Him angry with vile deeds. 32:17 They sacrificed to demons who were non-gods, deities they never knew. These were new things, recently arrived, which their fathers would never consider. 32:18 You thus ignored the Mighty One who bore you; forgot the Power who delivered you. 32:19 When God saw this, He was offended, provoked by His sons and daughters. 32:20 He said: I will hide My face from them, and see what will be their end. They are a generation which reverses itself and cannot be trusted. 32:21 They have been faithless to Me with a non-god, angering Me with their meaningless acts. Now I will be unfaithful to them with a non-nation, provoking them with a nation devoid of gratitude.<br />Rabbi Jonathan Sackshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06724954433302279666noreply@blogger.com