העורך Editor

We recently noted the heretical aspects of the Steinsaltz Talmud. But what about the basic quality of the work itself?

See Rabbi Aharon Feldman’s “The Eye of the Storm – A Calm View of Raging Issues”, 2009, chapter 17.

He shows the Steinsaltz Talmud to be shoddy scholarship. I don’t have permission to reproduce the entire chapter from Rabbi Feldman’s book, but it’s quite damning (thanks to a dear reader for the images!).

Here’s a revealing excerpt, where Steinsaltz claims the Gemara here says things for no reason at all (“certain sections of the passage are entirely superfluous”, sic), and puts that in the mouth of the Geonim:

Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein recently accused Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum in Cross-Currents of cheapening Jewish heroism and history. I would comment directly on the site, but I think I’m blocked (Yay!).

Here’s the main part of the article:

A few days ago, R Aron Teitelbaum of Satmar/Kiryas Yoel voiced his disapproval of the New York State Commissioner of Education for her ongoing attempt to force compliance with state curricular standards…

“She wants to change Klal Yisrael and remove us from our religion exactly as the Greeks wanted in their time, to destroy the education institutions, a decree of forced conversion (shmad). Who would have thought that here, in the greatest democracy in the world, a time would come when a decree on education would become reality?”

The Rebbe is known to be a clever, smart man. He cannot actually believe that the NYS Dept of Education is working for the apostasy of the Torah-true Jews of Kiryas Yoel and Williamsburg. So its just a bit of literary flourish, right? A bit of dramatic exaggeration? In a country currently awash with hyperbole, the Rebbe is perhaps no different than many in politics, broadcasting, and the academic world.

But there is something else wrong with this. Employing the “shmad” charge in this context cheapens centuries of Jewish history, and minimizes the sacrifices of countless Jews who laid down their lives in times of real gezeiras shmad. They knew the difference between the NYS Commissioner of Education and the likes of Antiochus, Torquemada, Count Uvarov, and the raiding parties in Iran that forcibly converted entire villages of Jews.

No. What Rabbi Adlerstein cannot imagine is that this is the case with all government education. Public schooling is an intentional threat to all religion or pseudo-religion (except for state “power religion”). Read the relevant chapter in Rothbard’s “For a New Liberty” for the historical proof. Polish up with Gatto’s “The Underground History of American Education” (free here).

Now maybe Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum doesn’t know all that either. But government education really is Shmad! Rabbi Brand expands the halachic “Shmad” category to state expulsions of Jews from the land of Israel, and similar matters as well.

Not hyperbole!

The Rebbe certainly knows that there is no locale in the entire country with a larger percentage of people living on the public dole than Kiryas Yoel. Not too many people are going to believe that the government is trying to wipe them out as a community. The Satmar argument that the State’s demands are excessive has some merit. It would be better, however, if it did not match that excessiveness with words that are a slap in the face of centuries of kedoshim.

That is an actual valid point. “Who pays the piper calls the tune.”

I wish to comment on the oft-heard claim selling or promoting segulah items is “manipulative”, because “there are people who end up impoverishing themselves due to desperate “investment” in such things.”

Unless it is halachically fraud (not my topic for the moment!), you can’t prove “opportunity cost”. How do you know they would have extra money left over if they hadn’t used it for this? You can’t know.

It’s like the claim if people weren’t wasting their time and energy on statistically ineffective politics, they could be making real changes in the world by Direct Action, or whatever. Says who? As best as I can tell, people like the illusion of politics. They don’t like changing things. And so one does not come at the expense of another.

Can you prove me wrong?

The Bagatz is releasing a couple of thousands of prisoners home because the jails are too crowded. Baruch Matir Assurim! I am torn, obviously. But the news reports that some of those released are dangerous pedophiles!

I just hope the fence around Kefar Shemaryahu (where just about all the Supreme Justices live) is nice and tall…

I hope not, because that sounds like the start of a transcendental argument against religion.

The following article from Scientus somewhat defends Cursedianity, but it applies equally to us:

Plotline: The story is set in south-western France around the turn of the twentieth century. A brilliant researcher is meticulously pouring over Leonardo DaVinci’s manuscripts where he decodes subtle clues that lead him back to a little-known web of medieval priests and monks. This group had clearly ventured into areas they weren’t supposed to. The researcher innocently sends news of his discoveries to exactly those people who were most threatened by the new knowledge. To their good fortune, he dies before his final manuscripts are published. The publication of these manuscripts is stopped under mysterious circumstances. The name of the medieval priest who was at the centre of the web would become the “name that dare not be mentioned” for 40 years. His own name, even though he had been considered the welcome new bright light before his discovery, would rarely be mentioned again. The secret of the Parisian doctors would remain hidden…if the researcher had not left behind a courageous daughter. Nothing was going to stop her from letting the world know about her fathers work. Not a global depression. Not a world war. Not thirty years of excuses from a publisher.

No, this isn’t the plot of a pulp fiction novel or a Hollywood blockbuster. Because it isn’t fiction. It actually happened. The researcher’s name was Pierre Duhem. His daughter’s name was Helene. Describing Duhem as “brilliant” is an understatement. It is extremely rare that a single individual can make historically significant contributions to three completely different disciplines, but that is what he did. Pierre Duhem was a world-renowned physicist from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His main interest was in theoretical physics, and his work is still taught in university thermodynamics courses today . Physics wasn’t his only forte, he also became involved in the philosophy of science, and one of his theorems, the Duhem-Quine Theorem, is still discussed by philosophers and economists today. Later in life he turned his attention to the history of science. One can hardly think of a better candidate for a historian of science; extremely adept in both Math and Physics; meticulous in his research; knowledgeable about the culture of science from being a historically significant scientist and aware of the philosophical issues of science from being a historically significant philosopher of science.

Continue reading the rest…