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Thursday, January 28, 2010

Daat Emet Post

The post, dated 20.01.2010, deals with the following 3 questions of a guy called Eli, obviously in a state of a post-kiruv syndrome:

  1. Isn't the fact that the Torah remained nearly unchained as opposed to other religious document a proof that Judaism is true?
  2. If the Torah is invented, why did people follow Moshe's chukim (inexplicable laws) if there is no benefit to it? Example is some people needing to divorce their wives after Matan Torah told them that relatives were forbidden.
  3. Why would prophets risk their credibility in writing prophecies that might not come true?
The answers, of course:
  1. The Torah did not remain unchanged, as proven in pamphlet 9 of Daat Emet.
  2. Who says that all laws were given at once? And, yes, there are other precedents such as female circumcision that were accepted despite the fact that they were damaging their adherents.
  3. The art of being a prophet is to produce prophecies that were vague enough to explain them as true (similar to horoscopes) and they were written down ipso facto. Besides, some of them did indeed not come true (like the Torah's own promise of abundance on the 6th year of a shemita cycle).
Note: Besides the fact that all premises were rubbish, it is sort of self-understood that Matan Torah really happened. In any case, the answers of Daat Emet are, as usual, highly recommended.

Read the original post here (English translation available by clicking the English button).

7 comments:

  1. Re: #2, that's not the answer at all. The real reason is that there are communal strength benefits to following chukim. It makes you part of a "secret society" if you will. Communities get a lot of utility out of having these sorts of things. There are hundreds of examples in every community. It's evolutionary. It's a response developed by the community over time to keep themselves together. In other words, there is no divine meaning to it whatsoever.

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  2. 1) Who knows that? For all i am concerned, Torah might just be a collection by various groups, and most might well litter the cutting floor at Ezra's studio.

    Why pass as credible the assumption of TMS?

    2) Most "chukim" were probably in existence well before the actual writings of the Torah. Moshe might never has existed, not to mention "give them". As to why they were accepted in the first place? who is to know? A brutal king (as Mayors are frequently referred to in Yehoshua), Tribal identity (as in answer), perceived advantage per pseudo science. Point being, it says nothing about TMS.

    3) Why buy the timing of the writng as TMS as proof to TMS? Its circular. Now the easiest thing is to produce 20/20 prophecy "after the fact".

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  3. Anonymous: Thanks for the added value.

    Bishrirus: Good!

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  5. ARGH! could you please delete the above post my computer bungled!

    I was trying to copy and paste this link on the failed prophecies in the bible:

    http://www.rejectionofpascalswager.net/prophecies.html

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  6. Shalmo: This website is a treasure trove; thanks! I will add it to the favorite kofer sites section in my blog.

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