בס׳ד

"Where does it say that you have a contract with G-d to have an easy life?"

the Lubavitcher Rebbe



"Failure is not the enemy of success; it is its prerequisite."

Rabbi Nosson Scherman



2 Aug 2011

The immutability of the Torah

Among the 13 principles of faith by Maimonides is the belief in the immutability of the Torah.
9. I believe with perfect faith that this Torah will not be changed, and that there will never be another given by G-d.

So, when I read an article questioning whether certain biblical laws are eternal, my answer was an unequivocal "yes". The authors of the article, however, wrote about one prohibition in the Torah, "one should recognize that the biblical prohibition is not one that is eternal and unchanging."
The authors also demonstrate the danger of interpreting biblical words according to their own understandings and not relying on far more erudite scholars and Rashi's exegesis.
For example, the authors point to words of Abraham:
"She is, in fact, my sister, my father's daughter but not my mother's daughter, and she became a wife to me" (Genesis 20:12).

They write that "the law in Leviticus explicitly forbids such relations with a half-sister" and come to the conclusion, "so what is not a to'ebah in the generation of the patriarchs has changed and become one in the generation of Moses."

But, Rashi writes that since Abraham's father was someone who worshipped idols, the law prohiniting a man from marrying his father's daughter did not apply in the case of Abraham.

So, even if the authors were educated at Queen's University in Canada and Harvard, I'll stick with Maimonides and Rashi.

1 comment:

  1. Not if they studied at queens and harvard ill stick with rashi but chal vechomer because they went to such dumps ill stick with rashi whose college was honoring his father and the torah . Not secular bastions like queens and harvard who mix milk and meat jews and gentiles and all the worlds philosophies and religions united . Most orthodox are too dense or too stupid to realize this truth .

    ReplyDelete