tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20173285.post6350372137294031026..comments2024-03-25T09:43:27.402-04:00Comments on Divrei Chaim: Chasam Sofer on the Ra'avad and corporeality of G-dChaim B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02231811394447584320noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20173285.post-33753720163634325922015-01-14T16:05:26.298-05:002015-01-14T16:05:26.298-05:00It is useful to see Kesav Tamim (by the Baal Tosaf...It is useful to see Kesav Tamim (by the Baal Tosafos R' Moshe Taqu) inside. I am not saying that the Raavad was necessarily referring to KT as being the greater rabbi than the Rambam. But he <b>is</b> the only candidate we still know of.<br /><br />My take:<br /><br />The Rambam (Moreh I) argues that HQBH is so Other, so Unique, that we can't say anything about what He Is. Only about what He Isn't, and what He does.<br /><br />RMT's position appears to be that HQBH is so Other, so Unique, that we cannot make any deductions about Him altogether. Take logtic and reason off the table. And so, if the Torah says "Yad Hashem", what tools do we have to argue? It may not make sense to say Hashem has a Guf, but not fitting human sense is a given. In a way, his point isn't to assert that Hashem has a body as to attack the notion that we can deny it. We have to leave the question of G-d's Body unanswered and unanswerable.<br /><br />Notice there is no more room in [my understanding of] RMT's hashkafah for a personal relationship with G-d or Divine Immanence, than there is in the Rambam's. Both deal in purely transcendent terms.<br /><br />Here's a relevent quote (pp 79-80):<br /><br /><i>We cannot compare Him to any image, and we, who are fetid drops, cannot think about His nature. When it is His will to show Himself to the angels, He shows Himself standing straight, as much as they are able to accept. Sometimes He shows them a strange light without any form, and they know that the Divine Presence is there. He has movement, which can be derived from the fact that His fetid creations have movement. He created the air which provides life to the creations and created the place of the world.... He furthermore made known to them the acts of the chariot and the acts of creation. But without the wisdom of the Torah, it is impossible for any person to recognize the greatness of the Holy One, blessed is He, through intellect.</i><br /><br />And (pg 85):<br /><i>A wise person will understand that according to the reasoning and intellect of those 'outside' viewpoints that we mentioned above, one must deny the statement of the Rabbis (Bereishit Rabba 88) that: "'I will be faithful for them' -- for three thousand years before the creation of the world God created the Torah and was looking in it and learning it." According to their words that there is no movement or motion and no speech all the words of the Torah and of our Rabbis must be analogies and metaphors. Heaven forbid that anyone with a soul within his body should believe in what they say, to lessen the honor of our Creator, and to deny the greatness of what our Rabbis have told us! They have also written, "Does He sit on an exalted and high throne? Originally was it possible for Him without a throne and now He need a throne? Furthermore anyone who sits on a throne has the throne surrounding him, and we can't say such a thing about the Creator, about Whom it says that He fills the heavens and the earth." These are [their] words of blasphemy, that He doesn't need the throne! They have forgotten... what the Men of the Great Assembly established in our prayers, "To God who sits... on the seventh day He ascended and sat on His throne of glory..." We see that He created the world and sat on the throne of glory, and not that He created other forms and sat them on the throne. Such a form was never created and these are words of blasphemy.</i>micha bergerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11612144735431285113noreply@blogger.com