Mitzvos

There are certain Mitzvos, which, by their very nature, obligated people differently according to their levels. These are notable exceptions, the ones that come to my mind offhand being Kedoshim Tihiyu, and Talmud Torah. The amount of Kedusha and the amount of Torah you must learn depends on your level.

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You do a Mitzvah because Hashem said so. While we do get closer to Hashem by doing Mitzvos, and Mitzvos "lift up" the world, and it is fine to have all those things in mind when doing the Mitzvah; the reason you are doing the Mitzvah is none of the above, but rather because a Mitzvah is the will of Hashem.

To illustrate this, consider a hypothetical case where you could (a) get closer to Hashem, or (b) lift up the world, by going against the Ratzon Hashem. Would you do it?

No, you would not.

Then consider a case where you could fulfill the Ratzon Hashem but by doing so you would get further away from Hashem, or bring the world down. Would you do it?

Yes, you would.

The question, rather, is what should be your motivation to listen to Hashem?

The answer is, there are different levels: There is Ahava, the higher level, where you listen to Hashem's will because you love Him. The reason you love Him is because of the wonderful things He does for you, that is, out of gratitude to Him.

The lower level is Yorah - out of fear.

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Kaddish is not "such an important part" of Judaism. It is actually a custom - not one of the 613 Mitzvos, not even a Rabbinic Mitzvah, and surely not one of the 13 Fundamentals of the religion.

Among the non-religious, Kaddish became like the most important part of Judaism, and that is because the non-religious Jews used to have religious parents, and when those religious parents died, the non-religious children figured they'd do something nice and honorable for them religious-wise in their honor, since the parents always believed in the religion anyway. So Kaddish became it.

Of course, where the custom applies, it is considered honoring one's parents to say the Kaddish. That means if you do not have a minyan, or if you are a woman, or a slew of other circumstances as well.

Women do not say Kaddish because a custom, by definition, is followed according to its established methods, and when Kaddish was instituted, it was explicit that women do not say it.

The reasons it was instituted that way could be many: don’t forget - if you read the words of Kaddish, you will find not a single mention of death, deceased relatives, honoring the dead, or anything at all that would motivate someone to say this prayer in honor of or in memory of a deceased relative. In fact, the main part of Kaddish - yehai shemei rabbah - is merely an Aramaic translation of the prayer "boruch shem kevod malchose l'olam vaed", which we all say twice a day anyway, women included, and even without a Minyan.

The kabbalistically-aware sages who instituted this custom did so because as per to Jewish mysticism, this prayer, when recited in a certain way (with a minyan), at a certain time (after the aleinu prayer, and sometimes some other places, during the davening, for the first 11 months after the death of certain - not all - relatives, and on the anniversary of their death thereafter), and by certain people (men), if is of benefit to the soul of the deceased. When said not under the specific designated conditions, it does nothing for the soul, and for all we know can perhaps even be harmful.

There are times and circumstances that the Kaddish is optional; there are times when the Kaddish is mandatory; and there are times when the Kaddish is prohibited. All of this is based on the original, kabbalah-based reasons for the kaddish in the first place.

But as I said, Kaddish is NOT a main part of Judaism at all, and it is not to even the main way to honor deceased parents. The main way to do that is available to males and females both - if the children follow the Torah's path, it is a greater merit and honor for the soul of the deceased than 1,000 times saying Kaddish.

That is what Orthodox Judaism says - if you want to honor and commemorate your parents after they are gone from this world, let your behavior be proper, do Hashem's will, and let your parents be proud of you.

The Kaddish is only a custom.

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Proving Torah : Misc. II

Regarding the Refuos in Gemora, the rule is "nishtanu hativim" - refuos change, and in the days of the Gemora they worked. We do not rely on the Refuos in the Gemora today.

Scientists are constantly changing their mind about things and one would be hard pressed to use current scientific knowledge as a question on Chazal. (A while ago, they would have said that the Zohar, which states the world is round, is a strange statement, since the scientists know that the world is flat!).

On the other hand, there are inexplicable statements in Torah that have proven centuries later to be scientifically correct, such as the statement in Niddah that there are no fish with scales that do not have fins, or the Rambam's incredible calculation of the exact time of the lunar month down to the fraction of a second, which took NASA about 700 more years of technology to figure out the exact same number, to the thousandth of a second, using their technology.

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Some scientific facts were known through rabbinic tradition. The Rashba cites a rabbinic tradition from Sinai that a treifah cannot live more than 12 months. (Rav Yonason Eyebushitz (Kreisi Upleisi 40) writes that such traditions are not to be disregarded even if found to be against “all the laws of heaven and earth”, since they are part of Torah shebal peh.)

The most recent example of this is the Chazon Ish ZTL, who lived in our times, and had no secular education at all, yet showed much knowledge of math and astronomy, much of which can be seen in his teshuva on the international dateline.

To question a scientific fact that is derived from the Torah is to question the author’s understanding of the Torah, which, in the case of Chazal, cannot be done. The only question is, did Chazal derive all of the scientific facts they used from the Torah, and what do we do when we see a scientific fact in Chazal that contradicts current scientific knowledge?

The Rama in Toras HaOlah quotes the Rambam who says that in the days of Neviim and Chazal, the science of astronomy was “incomplete”. The Rama strongly argues, stating clearly that we assume rabbinic science to be infallible, and ancient rabbinic knowledge of astronomy complete.

The Maharal (B’er Hagola 6) writes that when the sages mentioned a scientific fact, they derived it from their knowledge of the Torah and Hashem, Who is the Cause of all science. He says that science is inferior to Torah even where it comes to scientific knowledge, because scientists base their opinions on what they see, which is a finite and imperfect method of investigation, as opposed to knowledge of science through Torah, which is the root and cause for all facts in the world.

The fact that science in Chazal was gathered from “higher sources” was used by Rav Yehuda Breil ZTL, Rebbi of the author of encyclopedia Pachad Yitzchok, to refute his student’s suggestion that we reconsider Chazal’s leniency of killing lice on Shabbos because lice are spontaneously generated. The Pachad Yitzchok (topic: “zaide”) suggested to his Rebbi that now that science has refuted the possibility of spontaneous generation, we should not be lenient in allowing the killing of lice on Shabbos.
But Rav Breil did not accept the suggestion. Stating an idea similar to that of the Maharal, that Chazal’s knowledge is based on the reality, not mere scientific observation, it is certain that the rabbinic science is more accurate than the science of the scientists, and even if currently it appears one way, the rabbinic view will eventually be proven correct. He mentions that in the disagreement between the sages and the scientists regarding whether the sun revolves around the earth or vice versa, the sages conceded to the scientists, but centuries later, it was proven that the Torah sages were right all along (Moderator’s note: See Shitah Mekubetzes that the sages never conceded that the gentiles were right; they merely “lost the argument”. They knew from tradition that they were right; they just could not defend the correct position).

There are others (Rav Dessler, if memory serves) who write that when the sages explain a Halachah based on a scientific fact (such as the heter to kill lice on Shabbos), they do not mean to say that the Halachah depends on this fact. Rather, the Halachah is based on deeper, hidden reasons, and they merely “clothed” their reasoning in the scientific fact. They did not even mean to commit themselves to the truth of that fact per se. So if the fact is proven wrong, the Halachah stays the same.

(I am fully aware of the statements in the Sefer Me’or Anayim of Rabbi Azariah min Ha’adumim where he states that secular scientific fact would outweigh the science of Chazal. Please note that the sefer Meor Aynayim is considered highly unreliable (see Sdei Chemed vol. 9 p.179), declared prohibited to read by many Gedolim (and even worthy of being burned); at the very least, not everything he says is considered true or authoritative. It is his statement that the Maharal (quoted above) came to refute.)

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When Chazal discuss life, or what constitutes animal, mineral, or vegetable, they are using the Torah’s definitions, not the scientists’. And the Torah’s definitions of all of the above depend not on physical characteristics but spiritual ones. An inanimate object has a Nefesh Hadomem – the “spirit” (which is a better translation than “soul”) of an inanimate object; plant life has a Nefesh HaTzomeches; animal life, a Nefesh HaBehamis, and a human being, a Neshomah.

The definition of life that is used throughout Torah is spiritual, not physical. The Halachic cut-off date for an embryo being considered not yet life regarding certain Halachos is 39 days. On day 40, that changes. Biologically, there is no way to identify the exact date of “life”. This is a spiritual, Neshama-based, assessment, because the definition of life depends on spiritual, Nefesh-based criteria, not scientific ones.

If I were to create an android – a robot made out of human tissue – that is “programmed” to have human characteristics – to cry when hurt; to laugh when told a joke; to smile and display all chemical and physical signs of happiness when confronted by a desirable event (i.e., events that are programmed to be “desirable”) to eat and drink and burn the food as fuel; to portray in every scientifically way possible human characteristics – such a Golem, no matter what biological signs or functions it displayed, would not be a human being because it has no Neshamah; it would not even be considered “alive”. Perhaps a clone is in that category, a non-living humanoid constructed through biological matter and those biological factors that enable human functionality, copied from a real human being the way one copies a computer program, but without the spiritual components of a live creature, the Nefesh and Neshama. I don’t know whether, when you clone something, the spiritual components get cloned as well, but if they don’t, then I imagine a human clone would be considered not a human being but rather an organic robot, a humanoid, with no “life” of its own. Even if the scientists cannot tell the difference.

Should a human not have a Neshama or a Nefesh, he is not a human, but an organic construct; should someone create an organic machine that mimics plant life in every biological way possible, it may still be considered a Domem, if it lacks the spiritual Nefesh HaTzomeches.

So when Chazal say that lice do not reproduce but rather spring from sweat and dirt, they mean that lice do not impart into their eggs the same life-force that animals do, that their eggs have a Nefesh HaDomem, or partially a Nefesh HaDomem, and Halachicly their status is not that of eggs. The fact that scientists will tell you lice eggs are the same, biologically, as any other eggs, means nothing here. They see a Mommy louse, a Tatty louse, and a baby louse, but that’s just the way this construct was programmed to function. Plants also “reproduce” – the pollination process involves moving a seed (the pollen) to another "organ" (the stigma) which causes reproduction - so we have a Daddy plant, a Mommy plant, and a baby plant -- but plants aren’t animals. And plant “eggs” aren’t eggs. And Chazal had a tradition that neither are lice eggs, Halachicly, because the way lice are reproduced -- with a Mommy louse and a Daddy louse -- does not involve the result in the creation of an egg that enables an animal Nefesh the way other eggs do.
The Gemora, no matter what explanation you are going to have of it, says that dirt can produce lice. The scientists point out that it is an egg that produces lice. That’s not a big deal, because I am saying that those eggs are halachicly not eggs, but dirt. Because the difference between an “egg” and a biologically identical domem is something only Chazal could know, based on their knowledge of the Nefesh.
The Pachad Yistchok proposed to prohibit the killing of lice based on then new scientific knowledge that they are not spontaneously generated. Most achronim disagreed with him, either because (a) when the Gemora makes such statements it does not mean to link the halachah to the scientific fact but rather to "clothe" the halachah in a scientific fact, but the reasoning behind the halachah is based on spiritual reasons rather than science, or (b) the scientists constantly change their mind about things and their current position on anything is no proof that they will not change their mind.
But whatever - that’s a discussion in the Achronim. But it says nowhere that Torah she bal peh depends on the scientific statements that chazal based halachos on. As I said, that is a discussion in the achronim. Your question is not directed against torah she bal peh - for nowhere does it contradict you - but rather the interpretations of achronim.

If you prefer the Pachad Yitzchok's approach, I would disagree with you and tell you it's not necessary, but it wouldn’t make you any more of an opponent of Torah she bal peh than he was --- and he was one of the great Sefardic sages of recent history.

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Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch says that, even according to the scientists, who say today that the hare only appears to be chewing its cud, and even if it is true, it is not a contradiction to the Torah. The reason they do not chew their cud is because the hares we have today are not the same hares we had in those days (the time of the giving of the Torah). Rabbi Hirsch was not claiming to independently confirm or deny what the scientists said in his days - he never claimed to be a scientist.
He is not saying that the hares of 5,000 years ago changed into today's hares. He's saying that the animal identified in the Torah is currently extinct, and what we call a hare is not that animal.
This is a rare but altogether acceptable occurrence. It has happened. When the Torah refers to certain animals, it does not give identifying features to classify the animal. We rely on Torah shebal peh to do so, when necessary. Otherwise, translations such as these can become confused.
For instance, there is a machlokes as to what a "nesher" is - Tosfos in Chulin 63 a says it is not an eagle. (there are those who say it is a vulture).
There is a machlokes between Rashi and Tosfos regarding what "orzo" is -- rice or millet? (The question is, which one do we make a mezonos on?)
There is even a Rabbi in Eretz Yisroel - Rabbi Yitzchok Abadi - who holds l'halachah that shiboles sh'ul is not "oats", and that the real "shiboles shul is some kind of grain that we don’t have nowadays. He holds that oats are not mezonos but hadamah; that you cannot fulfill the mitzvah of matzoh with them; that they are not chometz.
So if Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch says that an arneves is no longer with us, or that it is not lepus or oryctolagus - hare or rabbit - then fine. Not anything shocking.
I would have said that when the Torah talks about chewing cud, it can very possibly include something that appears to be doing so such that you would need scientists to tell you technically it does not. The Torah was given to people, not scientists only, and if Hashem wanted to tell us about a hare, He definitely could describe it that way.

It does not say anywhere in Torah shbal peh that the arneves is what we today call a "hare." These things sometimes get confused, as I pointed out above. Today, in Israel, they call a tiger "NOMER" (as in "Tony HANOMER" on the box of Frosted Flakes), but we know that NOMER is a leopard. I would not be surprised if in many years from now, there will be some innocent Talmidei Chachamim that mistakenly confuse nomer for a tiger because of the colloquial usage. In fact, regarding the arneves itself there is clearly an error in "common knowledge". See Professor Yehuda Felix's "Chai v'Tzomeach B'Torah" p. 23, where he insists that the arneves in the Torah - the species that chews its cud - is NOT the domestic house rabbit that people think it is. It is only the wild species. He says this mistake happened because in ancient times they brought to Eretz Yisroel house rabbits from outside the land and grew them IN Eretz Yisroel (you can tell the difference because of their smaller body and legs). He adds that mistakenly people commonly refer to the domestic rabbit as "shafan", but clearly, he says, that is a totally different animal (i.e. the hyrax).

Point to a cougar and ask an average person what that is. "Leopard" he will likely say.

That’s how these things happen.


I don’t know where this idea came from. The subtle insertion of false assumptions into an if-then pattern of logic is a typical tactic of the "misinformation professionals" who try to "prove" falsehood. They arrange their falsehoods in such a way as to sound as if some transitive formula is being stated when in reality it’s just a bunch of hogwash. The listener gets so caught up in the "if A then B so if B then C" pattern that they are distracted from the falsehood of the entire sequence.

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The earth revolving around the sun is only relative. Nobody has proven nor even claims that it is absolute. In other words, if the Earth is the center of the universe, and the entire universe revolves around the earth, it will appear from the vantage point of anyone located within the universe that the sun is revolving around the earth, when in reality it is the opposite.

In other words, if you throw a ball in the direction of north at 60 MPH, you are stationary but the ball is moving.

However, if at the time you threw the ball you were on a bus traveling south at a speed of 60 MPH, you were actually moving, but the ball was stationary.

It wouldn’t seem that way to you, though, because you’re on the bus throwing the ball.

But someone outside the bus would see the ball stay in the same place, and you move.

However, if that outside observer were standing on earth, which was (for the sake of the argument) rotating North at 60 MPH, then even though to him it would seem like the ball was stationary and you were moving, the truth would be that the ball is moving, you are stationary, and he is moving.
Movement relative to another object depends on your perspective. And in order to know, ultimately, whether the earth revolves around the sun, because the earth is moving, or the sun revolves around the earth because the universe is moving and earth is stationary, you would have to measure form a vantage point outside of the universe, and nobody has been able to do that yet. At least not scientists.

So the idea that the earth revolves around the sun is like saying that the ball is moving inside the bus. Maybe. Or maybe everything is moving in your immediate area except the ball. You'd have to be outside the bus to know that.

Same thing here. To know whether it is the earth or the sun that is moving, you would have to take into consideration the entire universe's movement, which no scientists has been able to do.

The scientists themselves do not claim to be able to determine what goes around what, except from the vantage point of being inside the universe. The Torah is talking absolute.


So the scientists, and everyone else in this universe, are "on the bus". From their vantage point, it does indeed seem like the earth moves and the sun is stationary. But they are not, nor do they claim to be, able to determine whether the entire universe is moving around the earth. People merely tend to assume that is not so, because of all the quadrillions of planets and stars in the universe, why would everything be revolving around this particular planet earth?

Except for the fact that Chazal tell us that the entire world was created for the sake of Klall Yisroel and the Torah, and that the sun in fact revolves around the earth, as does the entire universe, of which the earth is the exact center.

And no scientist in the world is going to tell you that he can disprove that.

From our perspective, we who are "on the bus", it looks like the "ball is moving".

But from the ultimate perspective, the complete perspective, stepping so far back that the entire universe is in view, the earth is smack in the center.


The idea that stopping the sun is not literal will not help, because the Gemora says explicitly that the sun travels around the earth.

The scientists today do not even claim to know that the earth revolves around the sun except in a relative way as I mentioned before. The Torah is speaking in absolute terms.

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The "four corners of the earth" is not taken by anyone literally nor was it ever. It was, and still is, an expression. Kind of like when the Torah says Hashem took us out of Egypt "with an outstretched arm."

Jews always knew the world was round even when the scientists said it was flat. The Zohar speaks about "kadur haatrez" - the ball of the earth. Of course, if "secularists" were there, they would have said the Torah doesn’t mean "globe of the earth" literally, or something messed up like that.

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Proving Torah : Misc. I

It makes no sense that Judaism could be forgotten suddenly - by everyone, everywhere, at the same time? Suddenly? How? Why?

No, Judaism was never forgotten, Jews were always scattered around and separated, but nevertheless they had the same Mesorah and same recollection and traditions of the giving of the Torah.

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The Gemarah that says Har Sinai was held over Bnei Yisrael so they would accept the Torah {this is after we said Naaseh Venishma} and we later reaccepted the Torah completely and without reserve after the events of Purim]

Kafah aleihem har kegigis was not c"v a forced belief. It was a forced acceptance of obligations. They believed very well, with or without that mountain. They just were reluctant to accept the responsibility of the Mitzvos.

In fact, the Ran says that the reason the aseres hadibros starts with Anochi Hashem, as opposed to "Thou shalt believe in me", is because they certainly did believe before kabbalas hatorah, because anybody who is not an idiot (or willing to fool himself into being one) surely believes, since G-d's existence is so obvious. So it was meaningless for Hashem to tell them "thou shalt believe". Instead, He introduced Himself, as if to say "The G-d that you believe in -- I am He!" Anochi Hashem. And the Mitzvah of Emunah is therefore to believe not that G-d exists, since that's simplicity - but to believe that the G-d that surely exists is the entity that took us out of Egypt and gave us the Torah -- to believe that "I". i.e. the One talking to us on Har Sinai, is in fact the G-d that we all know must exist.


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The reason Hashem made things so complex is because He wanted to provide you with proof that He exists. So even though He could have done it differently, He did it this way for you to see His hand in creation. It says this in the posuk: Asah Elokim Sheyiru Milfanav - G-d created in order that you should be in awe of Him.

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During the Mabul, the entire world was under water, even Australia (an exception in Eretz Yisroel, Chazal say). The reason Hashem had to destroy the koalas there is the same reason he had to destroy the grizzlies in California: the animals themselves became corrupt and acted unnaturally. Only the fish did not "sin", and so they were spared.

Of course, such termination of animal life is not a "punishment" since animals have no Bechirah. Rather, it is more of a simple sanitizing of the world by removing from it all the tumah that man had planted therein.
The animals fitting into the ark was a miracle.

Crossing from Asia to America is possible on foot by crossing the Bearing Straits, a 52 (I believe) mile wide stretch of water between Russia and Alaska, which freezes up in the winter and creates a walkable path. That is probably how humans got to the Americas.

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The skeletons of the Jews who died in the desert due to the cheit hamiraglim might be found, it’s not as if archaeologists go out looking for them.
But more likely, I would imagine that the remains of those people who miraculously died were swept up by the ananei hakavod and buried miraculously, or something to that effect. Their deaths were of course a miracle, so their burials could very well have been also. Who knows?

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There is tons of archeological and historical evidence of Yetzias Mitzrayim. Rabbi Kelleman's book is a good place to start - he lists much archeological evidence of things like the 10 makos which were written down by Egyptians lamenting their fate at the time, as well as the exodus itself. But there is also history - the fact that Egypt suddenly "disappeared" off the historical map as a superpower for a few centuries has bothered secular historians for a very long time. Check out a book called Ages in Chaos by Immanuel Velikovsky, where he demonstrates that the sudden and inexplicable disappearance of Egypt as superpower coincides perfectly with the Biblical account of Egypt getting their country decimated by the Makos and their entire army wiped out at the Yam Suf.

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Ask him how his doctor can "restrict" him from eating certain foods - like cyanide, arsenic, and mercury, for instance (all deadly), - will not drinking gasoline make you a better person?

Your soul has a “biology” to it just like your body does. And G-d, in His benevolence, has revealed to us what it takes to keep that soul alive and healthy. It's that simple. G-d does not "restrict" us any more or less than science "restricts" us by telling us what will kill and harm us. Does he have a problem with that?

Why would G-d create a body with such "restrictions"? But He did, didn't He? Your soul, too, has such requirements, and the scientists of the soul are the Chachamim, the science of which was given to us by G-d on Mt. Sinai.

Just like by following your doctor's directions you will merit a healthy life in this world, so too by following G-d directions you will merit eternal happiness in Gan Eden. And vice versa.

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Get a hold of a book called "Awake My Glory" by Rabbi Avigdor Miller (which, by the way, is a wonderful book about Jewish ideology in general), and "Permission to receive" by Rabbi Lawrence Kelleman, where you will find, in the appendix, representatives of Pope John Paul II trying pathetically to defend Christianity, and failing miserably. Also check out www.jewsforjudaism.com.

Normally, though, I would suggest you just avoid the missionaries.

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Proving the Torah II

Avraham's converts did not merely believe Avraham that he heard G-d talk to him. That's not how Avraham convinced them to be Jewish. Rather, he proved to them that G-d is One, and idolatry is a fraud. In other words, Avraham convinced people to be Jewish with the same reasoning that convinced him to be. Avraham never used revelation to produce converts, but rather reason.

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Even things that happen in front of small crowds can eventually be distorted in the details - like playing telephone. If there would be no disagreements about something that happened in front of a crowd, you can be more assured that it is so. The very fact that there are no discrepancies is the evidence.

Kabbalas HaTorah, on the other hand, was uncontested in ancient times - there was no controversy, there was no discrepancies, and even the other religions, who would have benefited had they claimed that G-d said to follow Jesus or Mohammad, did not do that. They could not - it was historical unanimous fact that Kabbalas HaTorah happened.

In front of millions of people, with no dissenting opinions.
That Jesus thing supports the proof to the Torah - because even a small issue like who killed jesus is so subject to disagreements. Thus, the fact that a miracle like Hashem speaking to millions of people is not subject to any disagreement throughout history is the proof.

Even though Moshe learned from Hashem for 40 days and nights, the entire nation heard Hashem say Anochi, lo yihiyeh lechah, and perhaps the rest of the aseres hadibros (that's not clear either way, and is a machlokes among the rishonim).

It is clear - nobody disagrees with this, not even the atheists or the other religions, which is a big problem for them - that not long after the G-d "supposedly" gave the Torah, the entire Jewish nation actually believed that G-d came down Himself and told everyone - their own parents, grandparents great-grandparents etc. - to follow the Torah.

Now, if this never happened? How did they get the story?

The only possibility is that someone told them, "Hello people, I have news for you. Not long ago, G-d Himself came to your grandparents and said that they should all follow the Torah, tell their children to follow the Torah, and their children's children etc."

But if that happened, why would only this person know that information and not anyone else? If it would have happened, the nation surely would know about it.

So it is impossible, really, to tell people a story that supposedly happened in front of millions of witnesses who happen to be their ancestors, if the descendants themselves don’t know about it. Why would one person know about it and nobody else?

So obviously they did know about it. Meaning, it happened.

And more, nobody - not a single group of people - ever denied the story of the revelation on Mt. Sinai. Not even the Christians or the Moslems. When they wanted to make a new religion, they did not say the Revelation never happened, or that G-d said follow Yoshkah. Why not?

The answer is, they could not say such a thing because it was a unanimous historical fact. Their only solution, as weak and silly as it was, is that G-d "changed His mind."

Why would everyone unanimously follow such instructions unless they knew they were true - i.e. they heard it from G-d? And if you were making up the Torah, you surely would not overburden everyone like that - unless you are crazy. But in this case, it wasn’t a stupidity - everyone - everyone! - followed. In a religion like Judaism where we had so many deviant sects and so many disagreements, not a single group denied Torah misinai. That is the proof.


Now obviously it would be more credible to the originators of these other religions if they would claim that G-d Himself didn’t just whisper in their ear, “Pssst – here’s a new religion”, but would instead show Himself to the entire populace of Iran or Salt Lake City and say “I am G-d. This is what I want you to do…”. Yet NO RELIGION CLAIMS THAT G-D APPEARED TO THE MASSES (and that they survived to tell it), except Judaism. To be sure, the religions of the world are mutually exclusive – Christianity, for instance, clearly rejects Islam, and vice versa. So one thing everybody agrees on is: SOMEONE here is making up their own fake religion. And not only someone, but almost all religions HAVE TO be a fake, because they all (for the most part) claim all the others are phony. The only question is, which is NOT the fake?

So now if people are going to make up a story, why don’t they make up a better story than “G-d told me, privately, to tell you that he wants you to follow whatever I say He says”? Why can’t they just make up a story that G-d told the WHOLE WORLD to follow their religion? Or at least a few million Arabs / Christians / Mormons etc.? Wouldn’t that make more sense? With all the crazy religions and cults out there, not one of them has figured out this idea – even though it is clearly stated in the Torah. Strange, no?

Why are they settling for a weak religion, one that depends on the believability of the prophet, rather than a strong one, where G-d Himself came to the people telling them to follow the prophet?

That’s the question. So tell me, what do you think?
If you were a false prophet and you wanted to make up a new religion, which of the following would you do:
(a) Tell people that G-d came to you and told you about this new religion, or
(b) Tell people that G-d came to all of THEM or all their ancestors and told them all to follow you

You would tell them that G-d came to you or something similar. How could you say that G-d came to them, as they would know it's not true? It’s the same thing if you told them G-d came to their parents, how come they don't know about it and only you do?"
You can't get away with creating such a hoax. And obviously that's why all religions that claim the "word of G-d" start off with G-d supposedly speaking to someone privately, as opposed to a whole nation.

Except for one religion. Judaism claims that Hashem came to the entire nation and spoke to them. The entire nation is claimed to have seen and heard Hashem Himself descending into this world.

This was clearly the belief of the Jewish nation shortly after the event (Kabbalas HaTorah) is claimed to have taken place - King Dovid built the Bais Hamikdash about 400 years after the Torah was given.

Dovid HaMelech publicly claimed that the Torah is true (it is all over his Tehillim), meaning the Torah that claims that the entire nation - ancestors of all living then - heard Hashem.

Now the question is: if it wasn't true how come nobody said "King Dovid -- we never heard of that before!"

There were constant deviant and rebellious sects among the Jews throughout history. Karaim, Sedukim, Christians, et al. All of them had their own "ideas". But interestingly enough - not one of them even denied or questioned the giving of the Torah on Har Sinai!

Even the Christians made fools of themselves rather than deny this simple event. They say that once upon a time, Hashem came to the entire nation and gave them the Torah. They say that was the "temporary" Torah. But when Hashem supposedly gave the "permanent" Torah (the "New Testament"), the same Hashem, instead of coming back and announcing it to the entire nation the way He did the first time, had some "angel" privately visit a guy named Joseph and whisper it in his ear.
Of all the different dissident sects on record, including Christians, not a single one questioned the revelation. This is true despite the fact that denying the revelation or describing it differently would have been to their interest, and conceding to it is very much against their own interest.

So every single group on record willingly conceded to a revelation where G-d said to follow the Torah, which put them at a tremendous disadvantage and forced them to weave the most far out tales in order to justify their dissent.

Nobody would do this unless they had to. And the fact that everybody on record did it shows clearly that they had no choice. If it wasn’t a historically accepted fact, they would not do it.

Every single version of the Torah throughout the world ever found has the exact same narratives in it. Greek mythology (totally incomparable to the Torah) has numerous versions, despite its relative geographic narrowness and limited time frame. The Torah on the other hand, which has been in the hands of religions, tribes, and even atheists all over the world for thousands of years - factions which were warring with each other even - all have the exact same stories without any discrepancies.
Christianity could not make up a story about Hashem visiting the nation, it wouldn't fly. So now they're stuck with the unhappy predicament of having the "old" law publicly announced, but the "new, revised" law whispered privately to some individual.

Not very believable, is it?

But the question is: If Hashem did NOT give the Torah on Har Sinai, then who did create it? And how was it possible that never did any of the descendants of the witnesses of the historical event question it?

Why was Judaism the only religion able to pull this off? Especially since there were always those group who questioned almost everything in Judaism -- but on this issue they never said "boo".

And this is just for starters.

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Ignorance is not measured by the number of people whose lifestyle you follow. And Christians do not comprise the majority of people in the world. They are currently about a third (Muslims are about 22% but their population is growing faster than that of Christians), and in the New Testament, Mark quotes Mt 7:13-14, which says that at any one time, only a minority of those will be true Christians - and that means a minority of Christians, who are a minority to begin with (please note I am not quoting the New Testament to prove its point, for the so-called prophecies of the NT never come true. On the contrary - I am quoting to show that according to Christianity itself, they do not claim to be a majority).

The New Testament also contradicts itself regarding “sightings” of Yoshkah after his supposed resurrection. Luke and John imply that Jesus was sighted only in Jerusalem, while Matthew and Mark say he was sighted only in Galilee.

There are numerous other obvious contradictions in Christianity: For example, was J a descendant of King David from his father's side as is required for the Messiah? Or was he of virgin birth?

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The word "Elohim" is used in reference to great people, or the judges on a high court. This word does not mean G-d, it means "Master", or "Lord", which, even in English, although it can obviously refer to G-d, it does so as an adjective and not a proper noun, and therefore can apply to humans as well.

The posuk says "You shall not MAKE other gods before me" - it says is that people make them. But they do not really exist. chas vsholom.

Try the Bible. By that I mean the Oral Law part of the Bible, which has always been part of the Jewish Bible, as authoritative as the Scriptures, but chopped off by the Christians when they started their religion, because if they were to use the full Bible, they would never be able to teach that Jesus is the Messiah - the Oral Law part of the Bible clearly negates that possibility (as does the Scriptures themselves, but not nearly as explicitly). In the Oral Law, it states clearly that there were no other gods, and the reason that G-d said "Let us make man" was because He was referring to Himself and the earth - since man is made both in the image of G-d as well as from the dirt of the ground. Man has 2 parts to him - the G-dly and the earthy. The "us" represents those 2 sides.

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Hashem hu ha'elokim does not say "li" - therefore, it means "YKVH is the authority of the world". Meaning, He is the only power that exists. It is not discussing G-d's relationship to "me" but rather G-d being the only power in the world.

"Hashem elokainu Hashem echad" means not that G-d is our authority as opposed to having authority over the rest of the world (then it would be a contradiction, as well as a falsehood) but rather, we are the ones who believe in G-d as the Elokim, as opposed to the rest of the world who do not. In Olam Habah, Hashem will be "echad" - meaning, everyone will recognize that G-d is Elokim.

The bottom line difference is that the first posuk says "li" which implies some relationship, not merely a belief, and so the Targum adjusted the meaning to make room for that relationship.

Changing the girsa is a last resort. If every Chumash in the world learned by every Godol had the current girsa, we can assume it is correct if we have any choice at all.

Proving the Torah

We discussed in the forums that Torah is different than all the other so-called “religions” in that every other religion began with some guy claiming to have heard G-d tell him that He (G-d) wants to start a religion. Unverifiable, and hardly very believable. So all religions are based on “belief”, blind belief in a prophet who claims that G-d confided in him about starting the religion.

Of course, these religions could not claim that G-d came to the masses and said “Hello, I want to start Christianity”, because the masses don’t know anything about it. If Yoshkah would have told everyone “The Creator of the world came to all of us 400 years ago and told all of our ancestors to follow Yoshkah”, they of course would have said, “Hey Yoshkah, how come you’re the only one that knows about this?”. You can’t make up a story that involves the ancestors of millions upon millions of people.

But the Torah does just that. Hashem came to the entire nation saying, “I am Hashem. This is what I want from you…” If a human being would have written the Torah and tried to sell this idea to the descendants of the millions at Har Sinai, it could not have worked.

As opposed to Torah, here’s how the other religions started:

CHRISTIANITY – Mary comes home to her husband, Joseph, pregnant. It’s not his, and he’s upset. Joseph says an angel came to him secretly and explained her excuse: “G-d did it.” So now a religion starts. Oh, and Yoshka’s resurrection? Nobody claims to have seen it. Some claim that they saw Yoshkah alive after he was supposed to have been dead, but no verification has ever been provided. (Elvis lives!)

ISLAM – The religion started when Muhammad claimed to have heard a “message from G-d” that he was chosen to be the holy “chat’m” (a special kind of prophet). He heard other messages, too, and he compiled them into what later became the Quran (Koran). Nobody except Muhammad heard these messages. You either believe him or you don’t.

The Quran reports that Mohammed’s mother also heard a voice claiming that her son will be a king and prophet, but we have no idea if this woman ever told this to anyone or the story was made up afterward, never mind if she herself was really telling the truth. Another “secret” revelation.

BUDDISM – Prince Siddhartha Gautama claims to have been supernaturally “enlightened” whilst in the midst of a meditative trance. When he “woke up” he enlightened the rest of the world with his supernaturally obtained truths. (I am not making this up.)

MORMONS – A man named Joseph Smith claims to have been periodically visited by angels, Yoshkah, Hashem Himself – you name it – explaining to him that all religions are fake, and giving him the secret directions to some golden “luchos” with important messages. Smith further claims to have eventually located these tablets, and recorded their message into what is now called The Book of Mormon. A friend of Smith, by the name of Oliver Cowdery also claims to have been visited by certain Talmidim of Yoshkah who bestowed upon both Cowdery and Smith some type of priesthood. (I am not making this up either).

ONE MORE RELIGION WHO CLAIMS A PUBLIC REVELATION (check this out!) – For the following piece of research, I am indebted to Rabbi Leib Kellemen, in “Permission to Receive” (Feldheim, ’96). There is ONE other religion that does indeed claim a public revelation. Some Indian groups have an oral tradition that the Hindu god Krishna addressed millions of warriors who participated in a certain battle. But – get this! – ALL THOSE WHO HEARD KRISHNA DIED IN THE BATTLE. Nobody survived to tell of the revelation. So how do we know it? Take a guess. Some individual, later in history was visited by Krishna privately who told him the story that nobody else knew.

JUDAISM - G-d Himself appeared to millions of Jews and told them "I am Hashem. This is what I want you to do . . . "

No comparison.

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If you concede that we’ve proven the truth of the Torah because the episode of Kabbalas HaTorah could not have been fabricated (please see the rest of this section), then you have proven G-d’s existence as well. It was G-d, wasn’t it, Who did speak to the entire nation at Har Sinai, right?

The fact that “[religion] has been debated” for 5,000 years means nothing. There have been religions that believed in totem poles as gods. The truth has to be assessed by its own merits, not by popular vote. When any of the 5,000 years worth of pagans and wishful thinkers can answer the hard evidence, then I will gladly agree with you. But despite 5,000 years of debate nobody has been able to answer the proofs.

Oh, and don’t mix Judaism with “religions.” There is a fundamental difference that distinguishes Judaism as being unique among them. ALL other religions that claim to know the word of G-d do so by claiming that G-d came to some guy and told him (the guy) that He (G-d) wants them (the people) to follow them (the guy and G-d both). There are never any witnesses to the revelation, never, and for some odd reason, G-d, Who supposedly wants everyone in the world to follow some individual – Yeshua, Mohammed, David Coresh – never told this to any one of them except the one who they are supposed to follow.

So you either believe him or you don’t.

Torah is different. In the Torah, G-d Himself comes to the entire nation, millions of them, and says “I am Hashem. This is what I want you all to do . . .”

NO RELIGION IN THE WORLD CLAIMS THAT G-D HIMSELF REVEALED THE RELIGION TO THE MASSES. It’s always a prophet who is telling us that he “received” the word of G-d. That’s what “religion” is. It’s belief.

Torah is history and fact. Nobody had to believe anybody. G-d Himself appeared to the entire nation and explained things to them. And the reason no religion can duplicate this story is because, as we said, it cannot be fabricated historically (see the “G-d” forum).

"How then, with Torah being accepted as a nation, and G-D being WITNESSED as a nation, were the people of other religions able to convince their children, and they their own children, of the existence and truth of a lie whose very basis in logic is faulty?"

Because nobody can confirm or deny their lies.
Either G-d spoke to Mohammed or He did not. Who's to say? Except Mohammed. If you want to believe him, fine. Nobody can contradict him. The Torah is the only story that cannot be fabricated.

Besides, the fact is that throughout history people have been convinced of the stupidest things, such as totem pole gods, scientology, and assorted nonsensical theologies. It is no problem to convince people to believe a lie that cannot be contradicted by the listeners. The impossibility is convincing people to believe a lie that can be contradicted by the masses.

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Even though we lump Judaism in the same category ("religion") with l'havdil Christianity and Islam, it is in a completely different category. Judaism is the only religion -- the others are clearly just inventions of some leader.

But regarding these two so-called religions, they are a joke. First, both of them would have to agree that their large number of followers doesn't prove anything, since if it does, each would have to explain why the other one has such a large following, even though they are heretics.

The truth is the reason these religions have such followings is because they have been running around for thousands of years trying to convert the world to their religions, using every tactic from falsifying their own religion in order to attract pagans - whatever religion the pagan was from ,they would say Yoshka is the fulfillment of the messiah or prophet of their (the pagan's) religion, copying part of the pagan religions in order to attract followers - to slashing your throat or torturing you to death if you didn't convert.

As opposed to Judaism where we have no interest in attracting converts, certainly in twisting our religion to meet the needs of every flesh-eating barbarian in the world.

As serious religions, these two -Christianity and Islam - never qualified. Their problem is, in order to be accepted as real they knew that they would have to be based on the Torah, since the Torah was accepted as a historical truth, and therefore how can you start a religion thousands of years after the world was already created and people already have a religion that their ancestors saw come from G-d? How can you contradict that?

So they decided to use the Torah as a basis but change it to fit their religion. G-d "changed His mind" the Christians say, which is kind of a problem, since all over the Torah (Devarim 5:26 and tons of other places) it states clearly that the Torah is forever. To this day, the Christians have no answer to this, never mind literally thousands of other disproofs from the Torah.

Perhaps you may believe that there is another side to this story, and that perhaps the Christians can somehow defend themselves? Guess again. Rabbi Lawrence (a.k.a. Leib) Keleman of Jerusalem, who currently teaches in Neve Yerushalayim (and if memory serves Michlelet Esther as well) sent three simple yet devastating disproofs of the New Testament to the doggone Pope John Paul II himself, politely asking for an explanation. The official Catholic Church's answer is printed, with comments, in Rabbi Keleman's "Permission to Receive", pp.205-211.

It's pretty funny. Basically, they admit that the New Testament is not really factually correct, rather, parts (such as the virgin birth) were taken from pagan religions to attract the pagans, and that Yoshka himself wasn't really a descendant of King David, but since the Jews always thought of the messiah as such, they referred to Yoshka in those terms.

Christianity they admit is basically a system of man-made beliefs that they feel are nice and important, but is this religion "true"? Not a chance, they admit.

The Muslims, too, have a joke of a religion, based on the Torah. Even though the Torah was given in front of millions of people, the Quran, which qualifies and changes it, was supposedly given privately to Mohammed and nobody else. It's full of contradictions and disproofs of its authenticity. The fact that they changed Shabbos from Saturday to Friday is itself enough to disprove their religion since it says clearly in the Torah, which they believe in, that Shabbos is the seventh day. Their excuse? I quote:

"The Sabbath was only appointed to those (i.e. Jews) who differed from their prophet concerning it, and your G-d will surely punish . . . for that which they differed." (Quran XVI, The Bee). Which means, that because the Jews "rejected' Friday as the real Shabbos, Hashem "punished" them by giving them the Shabbos on Saturday.

And this detail makes about as much sense as the rest of their religion.

If you want more information on Judaism versus the so-called religions, check out Rabbi Avigdor Miller's Awake My Glory, ch. VI, "The religions".

Torah Misinai and only MiSinai

[Note: I included the questions asked in this post so there would not be any confusion. It doesn't mean anything against the other great questions asked, it's just that this seemed like it needed context. If it gets confusing, please let me know. Thanks. -taon]

{Achiezer: I had it pointed out to me that the Ibn Ezra (and, apparently, the Chasam Sofer as well) in certain places seem to imply that the entire Torah is not completely written by Hashem/Moshe. Also, there’s something in Bamidbar Rabbah (3:13) that says Ezra put the nekudos/was unsure about some words, and I heard Rav Moshe wanted to burn this medrash. Rashi to Breishis 18:22 (in SOME editions) says it is a "Tikkun Sofrim shehafchuhu Z"L lichtov ken" (see Mizrachi, who quotes the Rashba that I know you will quote, Moderator, but also adds that Rashi seems to hold it is an actual change by Sofrim. And Medrash Tanchuma Beshalach at the end also writes "Tikkun Sofrim Anshei Knesses HaGedolah". The Eitz Yosef on the spot disputes this and says it was a later addition as he saw in the Ba'al Tzedah, but a different meforash seems to imply that the girsa is correct. Also, Ralbag (I am told) expresses the idea of "yesh mi-yesh" as opposed to yesh mi-ayin. These are very disturbing references--how should we deal with these?}


The phrase "Tikun Soferim" does not mean anybody c"v changed the text of the Torah, but rather it was a Peirush, a commentary, as to what the Torah intended when it wrote a certain thing. In other words, because of certain reasons, the Torah always had in mind the Soferim's comments, and meant it from the beginning. The moshol they give is like when King David would tell his scribe "Write down that David decrees so-and-so," and the scribe would write "King David decrees so-and-so". Even though the King did not use the title when referring to himself, it was his intention that the scribe write it anyway. The "tikum soferim" is part of Torah shebal peh, similar to the Ksiv-Kri that we have in many places.
Any differences in Sifrei Torah are in Ksiv-Kri, or malei or chaser, etc,. which is a matter of Torah shebaal peh, or Halachah l'moshe misinai. There are numerous disagreements about such things throughout Halachah.

But all this pertains to the Halachos of HOW to write the Torah, not what the Torah means to say.

The Rishonim and Achronim have already explained these things. The most comprehensive treatment of this that I know of is in Minchas Shai Zachariah 2:12. See also Maharal Tiferes Yisroel 66, Haksav V'Hakabalah Bereishis 18:22, and also Rambam Commentary on Mishna Kaylim 17:12.


The Ralbag says simply that yesh m'ayin the way we understand it does not make any sense, and that the Torah does say the "waters" were in existence before creation started. He suggests that during the time of the "waters" there was "substance without form", which is obviously nothing that we can comprehend, nor is it anything physical in any way that we can relate to.

To us, there is not much practical difference between this the position of total "yesh m'ayin". It only is a disagreement in philosophical terms, of what is the nature of the "nothing" that existed before creation. The Ralbag does not mean that there was anything in the sense that we conceptualize physicality before creation. It was something unimaginable. Like the "waters".

The Ralbag backs up his position with proofs from Chazal. Of course, most authorities disagreed with his position anyway. And he acknowledges his disagreeing with the Rambam in this.

That having been said, the Ralbag was very much into philosophy, more loyal to Aristotle's opinions than even the Rambam (though he got most of his information about Aristotle's positions from the Arabian philosopher ibn Rashd), and his philosophical ideas were criticized by other Rishonim. The Rivash writes that even though the Ralbag was great in Torah, his involvement in philosophy caused him to go off in a number of ideas in Milchomos Hashem, and he lists them. Interestingly enough, the Yesh M'Ayin issue is not one of them. The Milchomos Hashem was a very controversial Sefer, more so in many ways even than the Moreh Nevuchim, but basically for the same reasons. Rav Shem Tov ibn Shem Tov used to refer to the Ralbag's Sefer as "Milchomos Im Hashem." The Ralbag was embroiled in the same anti-philosophy controversy that the Rambam was.

However, needless to say - and the Ralbag writes this explicitly in a special section in Milchomos Hashem - that philosophy is useful only to the point that it does not conflict with the Torah and Chazal. When there is a contradiction between the two, it means that the Torah is of course correct, and that any problems in understanding are our fault, not the Torah's or Chazal's.