Volume 36: Number 76
Sun, 01 Jul 2018
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
Message: 1
From: H Lampel
Date: Sun, 1 Jul 2018 16:25:09 -0400
Subject: [Avodah] AN INSTANCE OF THE 7th KIND OF CONTRADICTION IN THE
AN INSTANCE OF THE 7th KIND OF CONTRADICTION IN THE MOREH NEVUCHIM
The Rambam?s seventh kind of contradiction# is often flouted as a
declaration that in the Guide he will purposely profess opinions one
place that stealthily contradict opinions he professes elsewhere. (And
some, the Strausian school, even assert that he does this for sinister
reasons, involving surreptitious detraction from orthodox views.)
Two observations regarding this.
1. The Rambam ascribes this kind of contradiction to the Midrashim and
Aggados (but not the halachic Talmud) as well. Would the Strausian
school claim he thought the Aggados and Midrashim were ?likewise?
secretly promulgating heretical ideas?
2 . The Rambam is explicitly speaking of contradicting /premises/ used
to give evidence /for /a point, not contradicting /points/. Meaning,
among the premises which the Rambam builds upon in order to illustrate
or bring evidence for a point, may at times be a premise he himself
disagrees with, as long as the audience considers it acceptable. In
talmudic terminology, this is called speaking le-shitas-cha. When such a
method is exercised in the Talmud, it is usually openly disclosed. And
the Rambam himself openly discloses in the Moreh that he used such a
technique in the Mishneh Torah when he proved G-d?s existence accepting
the premise that the world existed eternally, a premise he vociferously
denies. But in the Aggados and Midrashim, contradictory premises fly
about without indication. Nevertheless, the concluding points being made
are all true, and do not contradict (if not in cases where one of the
other reasons for contradictions apply).
I assume that the Rambam?s insistence that one must not let on, to the
unsophisticated, the contradictory nature of the premises, is similar to
one of the reasons he gives for why the Aggados convey lofty concepts in
a literary form that if taken literally is absurd. If the
unsophisticated are let on to the contradictions, they would mock or at
least not value highly enough the lessons meant to be taught.
Finding instances of this kind of contradiction in the Moreh Nevuchim is
not easy. But I believe I have found one.
In II:6, the Rambam is making the point that while no doubt angels are
real spiritual entities, the term ''malach'' is also used for the
instinct in animals that causes them to move one way or another, when
that movement is desired by G-d. The Rambam illustrates this with the
account of Bilaam?s donkey, who, because it was blocked by a malach,
refused to obey Bilaam?s instructions to travel further.*
Before I go on, some introductory matter:
Ramban, like the Rambam, holds that since angels are none-physical
entities, they cannot ordinarily be perceived by a person?s physical
senses. Ordinarily,## ''seeing'' an angel is a spiritual enterprise
capable by a human, but not by an animal. So, Ramban, explains, when the
Torah says that Bilaam?s donkey ''saw'' the angel blocking its way, it
cannot mean it in its literal sense. It means that the donkey was
controlled by an instinct of fear that prevented it from moving, without
having any awareness of the angel that caused it.
So now, back to the Rambam. Later in the Moreh Nevuchim, II:46:
The Rambam did not subscribe to the Ramban?s assertion that angels can
be turned into physical beings. Therefore, the entire episode of
Bilaam?s donkey, which involved the donkey and Bilaam seeing an angel
and speaking with it, could only have been an experience that happened
to Bilaam on a spiritual plane, not a physical one. It was a vision.
*So: there was no movement by the donkey caused by its instinct, called
an angel or not.*
In chapter 6, in the account of Bilaam, the Rambam was using the
Ramban?s premise or one similar to it--that the account of Bilaam was
something that happened in the material world--as one illustration of
his point that Scripture uses the term ?angel? to describe G-d
instilling a force into an animal that causes it to move or refuse to move.
But the Rambam himself does not actually hold that this happened in the
material world. *The premises in the two cases are contradictory. All
the same, his points remain uncontradictory*: (a) Any scriptural passage
describing a physical being having a physical perception of or physical
interaction with an angel must be understood as a vision of things in
the spiritual world, and not the material world, and (b) the term
''angel'' sometimes refers to a natural force. And a support for the
latter point can be found for those who subscribe to the Ramban?s premise.
The Rambam kept the contradictory premises 40 chapters apart, making it
hard to spot. I have not seen any commentary note this, and it took me
several decades...
Zvi Lampel
-------------------------
Seventh cause: It is sometimes necessary to introduce such metaphysical
matter as may partly be disclosed, but must partly be concealed: while,
therefore, on one occasion the object which the author has in view may
demand that the metaphysical problem be treated as solved in one way, it
may be convenient on another occasion to treat it as solved in the
opposite way.
Pines? translation is more accurate:
The seventh cause. In speaking about very obscure matters it is
necessary to conceal some parts and to disclose others. Sometimes in the
case of certain dicta this necessity requires that the discussion
proceed on the basis of a certain premise, whereas in another place
necessity requires that the discussion proceed on the basis of another
premise contradicting the first one. In such cases the vulgar must in no
way be aware of the contradiction; the author accordingly uses some
device to conceal it by all means. The author must endeavor, by
concealing the fact as much as possible, to prevent the uneducated
reader from perceiving the contradiction
*... in the Midrash and the Aggada...* [y]?ou may also notice ...
contradictions due to the *seventh *cause. *Any inconsistency discovered
in the present work will be found to arise in consequence of the fifth
cause or the seventh. *Notice this, consider its truth, and remember it
well, lest you misunderstand some of the chapters in this book.
My translation:
The seventh cause [of a contradiction to be found in a work]: The
recognition that with very deep subjects, it is necessary to hide some
of their elements and to reveal some of them. And sometimes necessity
demands developing a given idea in one place following and accepting a
certain premise, while elsewhere, to develop another idea, necessity
demands accepting and following a premise contradictory to the first
one. And it is necessary that the unsophisticated do not in any way
sense the place where these two contradict, and that the author finds
any schemes he can to totally conceal this.
...in the Midrash and the Aggada [y]ou will also find ... contradictions
due to the seventh cause. Any inconsistency discovered in the present
work will be found to arise in consequence of the fifth cause or the
seventh. Notice this, consider its truth, and remember it well, lest you
misunderstand some of the chapters in this book.
* ?Ordinarily? is a key qualification, because the Ramban--contra the
Rambam--holds that whenever an angel is also described as an ?ish,? a
?man? that someone saw and/or physically interacted with, it means that
G-d ?clothed? the angel with a physical semblance of a person. Such was
the case, Ramban holds, contra Rambam, with the three angels who visited
Avraham and saved Lot, and the angel who fought with Yaakov.
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