Over at the Talmud Blog there's a discussion about the medical advice offered by the Talmud.
I am reminded of a discussion in Lekutai Sichot (Vol. 23, pages 33-41) by the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson זי"ע, which sheds some light on some of the more general issues raised there. The central problem he seeks to address is that Maimonides included some (but certainly not all) of these Talmudic cures in his Mishnah Torah, codifying them as a part of Jewish Law, despite the fact that he only includes laws that are pertinent for all generations in that work (see Lechem Mishnah, Hilchot Talmud Torah 4:1, Sdei Chemed Vol. 9, Klolei Haposkim 5:11). At the same time he is clearly acknowledging that they are not eternally relevant by only including some Talmudic cures.
The Rebbe's explanation is essentially mystical: All aspects of Torah (including medical cures recorded therein) are essentially spiritual; even as the Torah speaks of physical objects, we must be aware that core of the issue actually refers back to the spiritual arch-types of those objects. In the words of the Shelah - R. Isaiah Horowitz, "The Torah speaks of the supernal realms and hints to the lower realms" (SheLaH, 13b and 161a). While this principle does not contradict the better known principle that "a verse cannot be divorced from its simple meaning" (TB Shabbat 63a), there can sometimes be a divide, a miscommunication, between the spiritual arch-type and its physical manifestation. As we know only to well, not always is the physical reality in synch with the spiritual ideal.
The Rebbe goes on to apply another essentially mystical idea to his reading of the Rambam: The Tumim (to the Shach's Tokfo Kohen, SK 124) writes of the authors of the Shulchan Aruch that "the spirit of Divinity radiated within them, that their words should conform to the Halacha, without the intention of the writer..." Here too, the Rebbe asserts that the Rambam was guided from on high to select those cures whose spiritual arch-types were indeed eternally relevant, if not necessarily eternally applicable in the physical realm.
In accordance with this principle, the Rebbe argues that in every aspect of Torah study we must always endeavour to achieve an awareness of the spiritual core of even the most (apparently) mundane aspect of Jewish law and practice, applying all aspect of the Torah not only in their all important practical form, but also in the inner service of the heart and mind.
If you take a look at this discussion, and the format in which the Rebbe presents the problems and his arguments, you can only wonder at the way in which the Rebbe - I think very characteristically - integrates the paradoxical elements of a profoundly mystical conception of Torah study, and the cool analysis of rigorous scholarly methodology.
After learning the Rebbe's chassidus, one wanders how someone could view Torah any differently (without the spiritual component). I.e., the alternative seems to be very dim.
ReplyDeleteCertified Ashkenazi:
ReplyDeleteI don't think the Rebbe needs your haskomah, he was obviously a great man and an original thinker. But you should also realise that many other Torah authorities also view the Torah has having a strong spiritual component to some degree or another. Spirituality is not something unique to the Rebbe.
Chabad-Revisited's point about the paradoxical combination of profound mysticism and methods of analytical scholarship in the same breath, strikes me as more unique.
From an email sent in by a friend:
ReplyDelete"not sure it 'practically' answers the question... you kind of explain the ideal perspective one should have when approaching these topics but don't go into details... i think its a good answer for the 'believers' people asking the 'practical' questions may find a hard time believing it..."
I replied:
I think the main issue here is that modern rationalists tend to assume that our knowledge of the world as it is today allows us to draw conclusions about the world as it always was. This leads them to conclude that the wisdom of earlier ages is not wisdom at all put primitive superstition. The Rebbe has a more nuanced approach: He does not dismiss the evidence of modern science and freely acknowledges that the Talmud's medical advice is no longer applicable. But at the same time he assumes that the Rabbis of the Talmud were sophisticated and rational enough to be relied upon not to take baseless superstition seriously. The cures that they recorded must therefore have worked at some time, even if they no longer do, and even if we can think of no scientific explanation of how they worked. This point has nothing to do with mysticism or belief, but is rather a rational argument based upon our knowledge of the intellectual world that the Rabbis of the Talmud inhabited and preserved in its pages. Neither do I think that this approach is unique to the Rebbe, this seems to be the assumption of many Rabbis through the ages.
The Rebbe's mystical perspective, adds a new dimension, which invest the ancient realities with an eternal value and truth that transcends the inconsistencies of our own experience in the modern world, and lives on in the less transient realm of spiritual reality. From this perspective, the physical world that we inhabit today is no more than an imperfect and primitive reflection both of its spiritual source and of the earlier, more ideal age of the Talmud.
So then, please tell us all why the Rambam, Mechaber, Tur, Ramban, Rosh, Rif and ALL Rishonim bar one, EXCLUDED the worry that eggs, onion and garlic left overnight was injurious to one's health and yet, this was re-adopted as Halacha by the Shulchan Aruch HoRav (who ignored the Magen Avraham on this as well).
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm aware that other Achronim follow the Shulchan Aruch HoRav in this, but that's not the point.
pitputim:
ReplyDeleteGood question, but I'm not sure why you expect me to be able to answer it.
"So then..." implies that based on what I have written above I should be able to answer the question, but I am really at a loss. No where that I can see did I make the claim to understand all of the statements of all of the Chabad Rebbes on the issue of Talmudic Education.
No worries. In context I thought you might have an answer
ReplyDelete