<HTML>I was surprised by Sasson Gabbai's letter in lookjed digest 11. He writes, in response to the fact that Rav Avraham Bno shel HaRambam maintains that Chazal do not know much about medicine, "One has to be very careful how Chazal are presented to students who do not have a full sense of Emunat Chachamim yet." I find this response to be intellectually dishonest and pedagogically unhelpful. I do not think we need to teach our children that Chazal knew everything. We can teach them about Chazal's genius for interpreting and making relevant Torah Sh'bichtav and Chazal's sensitivity to, and understanding of, the human condition. But we do not have to teach that they were experts in science or astronomy or medicine or philosophy
etc. They themselves admit that this wisdom can be found in other nations.
Students can identify with the fact that even the greatest Jews do not know everything and are inevitably flawed in one way or another. This fact is also explicit in the whole of the Tenach which is not embarrassed to relate to us the human failings of all its heroes. I hope that we can always be honest when teaching our students.
Danny Newman
Yeshivat HaKibbutz HaDati</HTML>
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/13/2008 12:30PM by mlb.
