It is known that each person by nature desires all the sciences,[25] whether he be an ignoramus or a sage. [It is further known] that it is impossible for a person to begin the study of these sciences, and direct his thought towards them, without the appropriate premises, and without entering the stages of science; they therefore forbade this and warned against it.[26]
Why Is Creation in the Torah?
Why does the Torah begin with the account of creation?[1]The answer depends on the nature and purpose of the Torah.[2]
In traditional circles, the best-known explanation is that of Rashi (Rabbi Solomon Yitzhaki, ca. 1040–1105), whose question makes it clear that he sees the Torah as primarily a book of commandments,
אמר ר' יצחק: לא היה צריך להתחיל התורה אלא מהחדש הזה לכם (שמות י"ב:ב'), שהיא מצוה ראשונה שנצטוו ישראל. ומה טעם פתח בבראשית,
Rabbi Isaac (3rd/4th cent. C.E.) [3] said: The Torah should have commenced with the verse (Exodus 12:2) “This month shall be unto you the first of the months” which is the first commandment given to Israel. What is the reason, then, that it commences with the account of the Creation?
Rashi (still quoting R. Isaac) answers that the Torah wishes to support the people of Israel’s claim to the land:
משום: כח מעשיו הגיד לעמו לתת להם נחלת גוים (תהלים קי"א:ו').
Because of [the thought expressed in the text] (Psalms 111:6) “He declared to His people the strength of His works (i.e., He gave an account of the work of Creation), in order that He might give them the heritage of the nations.”
שאם יאמרו אומות העולם לישראל: לסטים אתם שכבשתם ארצות שבעה גוים, והם אומרים להם: כל הארץ של הקב"ה היא, והוא בראה והוא נתנה לאשר ישר בעיניו, ברצותו נתנה להם וברצותו נטלה מהם ונתנה לנו.
For should the peoples of the world say to Israel, “You are robbers, because you took by force the lands of the seven nations of Canaan,” Israel may reply to them, “All the earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He; He created it and gave it to whom He pleased. When He willed, He gave it to them, and when He willed He took it from them and gave it to us.”[4]
Not About History but Science: Maimonides
In contrast, Moses Maimonides (1138–1204) argues that the creation story is meant to teach us science.[5] This is important, Maimonides argues, because correct knowledge of the physical world is necessary in order to have knowledge of God (Guide of the Perplexed, introduction):
God, you see, chose to improve us and enhance our lives in society with His practical norms. But this could not be done without our reaching certain intellectual convictions – chiefly, an awareness of Him, so far as we are able. That depends on metaphysics, theological knowledge, which is won only after study of natural science. For physics borders on metaphysics and is its prerequisite, as its students clearly see.[6]
For Maimonides, the Torah is not merely or even primarily a law book, as Rashi believes, but aims at the overall improvement of individuals’ and society’s moral and intellectual life. Since Maimonides’s Judaism is orthodox, not orthoprax,[7] practical norms (mizvot) rely upon certain intellectual convictions, the first of which is knowledge of God to the greatest extent possible.[8] This, he argues, requires knowledge of metaphysics, the prerequisite for which is the study of natural science:[9]
That is why God opens His book with the Account of Creation, which belongs to physics, as I’ve explained.[10]
Thus, the Torah opens with ma’aseh bereshit, i.e., the science of physics.
WORTH READING IN ITS ENTIRETY:
https://www.thetorah.com/article/why-is-creation-in-the-torah
Physics is irrelevant to the Torah. If God wanted to give us a good description of the Creation, He'd need 100 chapters, not 1. It's about establishing who's the Creator and who's the Created that's the point of Maaseh Bereshis.
ReplyDeleteKellner is in the Open Schmorthodox machaneh so he has an agenda. And it's because of his agenda that he's getting tied in knots trying so hard to prove a davar poshut, which except for the most narrowminded in the oylam Hatorah, no one is trying to cover up.
ReplyDeleteFor your information, Rav Schach repeated many times from the Vilna Gaon that Aristotle was a genius who knew everything. It was only because he was bent on fulfilling alla tayvos that he denied Hashem's existence & purposely corrupted certain ideas, as did Plato, who Aleksander Mukdon appointed curator of Shlomo Hamelech's oitzar seforim.
One area where Kellner majorly misses the boat - he may or may not be bakant with Mishnas R' Aharon Kotler - is that mitzvos are a sidepoint of limud Hatorah, not the other way around.
There is chalukei deah on the ability to perform the mitzvos when learning is not possible, either by intellectual deficiency or for example the victims of the Holocaust. The Klausenberger is known to have said, performing any mitzva, Aseh, or Lo Saaseh takes precedence to learning per se.
ReplyDeleteThe entire Chassidus movement is based on shmiras hamitzvos, not learning necessarily.
We can't "mach avek" Aristotle in gantzen, without him, the Rambam had no legs at all his ability to reach the conclusions that he came to, because admittedly, his views did not shtam from Sinai!
...Typo -- had no legs at all IN his ability to reach the conclusions...
ReplyDeleteKellner may have an agenda, but his facts are correct as it pertains to this article.
https://nypost.com/2022/10/17/alleged-machete-attack-on-american-in-cancun-highlights-tourist-destination-risk/
ReplyDeletehttps://www.vice.com/en/article/v7vx3b/gop-candidate-masturbating-preschool-arizona
ReplyDeleteThese Kaufmans are Krauts, not Yidden
M-A-C-H-A-T-E ---- m'ramez "Machate U'chote. :-) No kidding...Anything for the $$$!
ReplyDeleteDr. Mike - the laws of physics are PART of Maaseh B'reshis. There is no planet, no humanity as we know it, without the laws of physics.
ReplyDeleteLike all groups we want to share a narrative of what we thought began things. And children ask. So that’s the story the best they could surmise back then. To say it’s actually the way it happened is arrogant as we are discovering every day through the scientific method new things never once comprehensible by the people of any civilization 5 to six thousand years ago.
ReplyDelete