• Anonymous -2 years ago

  Dear YeshivaNet team,

  thank you for all your great efforts.

  pls make this video class available in your reguler video format, my device filter doesnt let thru youtube videos. also on your hotline it doesnt come up.

  thank you

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• Anonymous -3 years ago

  why cant i download this?

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• Anonymous -3 years ago

  Further study on rambam can be found in zohar harambam chapter 5

  https://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=55578&st=&pgnum=77

  

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• AH

  Alizah Hochstead -3 years ago

  Question for Rabbi YY

  Can’t hear you

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• Anonymous -3 years ago

  Source for rambam 3:9

  

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• S

  Sara -3 years ago

  In the merit of learning RAMBAM

  Last Friday after Rambam Class No. 2, I was taking a walk and I saw the most beautiful site. So in the merit of learning RAMBAM, I'm sharing this pciture with everyone.

  . 

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• Anonymous -3 years ago

  Man and the Moon What did the Rebee say?

  The 1969 landing on the moon was a monumental achievement for mankind, and the leading Torah scholars of the time were as impressed as everyone else in the world. Here are some interesting reactions to this event.

  I. May Man Travel to the Moon?

  R. Hershel Schachter writes in the name of R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik (Beis Yitzhak Journal, no. 26 [5754] pp. 193-194):

  “The heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1) – [R. Soloveitchik] was asked about Judaism’s view of man’s traveling to the moon, with the questioner suspecting that it might be forbidden because it is written “The heavens are the Lord’s but the land He has given to mankind” (Ps. 115:16). [R. Soloveitchik] responded that one can distinguish in the definition of heavens and earth. The term “heavens” can be explained in two ways — as something high and/or distant, as it says “It is not in the heavens” (Deut. 30:12), according to which the moon is considered a part of the “heavens.” Alternatively, the term can be defined as including everything that is beyond human understanding, including the entire spiritual realm. According to this second understanding, the stars and most distant galaxies — and certainly the moon — are considered part of “earth.” Therefore, [according to this latter interpretation,] there is no contradiction between traveling in space or scientific studies of the cosmos and the verse “The heavens are for the Lord and the land for mankind.”

  II. Is the Moon a Living Being?

  R. Ya’akov Kamenetsky (Emes Le-Ya’akov al Ha-Torah,Gen. 1:1, 5761 revised edition pp. 15-16):

  As an aside, we learn from these words of the Ramban [on Gen. 1:1], and in particular from what he concluded in the continuation of his words on verse 8, that everything that exists in the creation in the entire world, including the sun, the moon and all the heavenly hosts, are not called “heavens.” The “heavens” are only things that have no physical bodies, such as angels, hayos and the merkavah. However, anything that has a physical body is included in the name “earth” in verse 1…

  These words of the Ramban are what carried me when we saw men descending from a space ship on a ladder onto the surface of the moon. I thought to myself: “What would the Rambam, who wrote that the moon has a spiritual form, answer now?” I thought that at that point Kabbalah defeated Philosophy, and comforted myself with the words of the Ramban…

  We are forced to say that what the Rambam told us in these chapters [Hilkhos Yesodei Ha-Torah, chs. 1-4] is neither ma’aseh merkavah nor ma’aseh bereishis. Rather, he wrote those four chapters from his deep mind and from his knowledge of secular wisdom, i.e. not from the wisdom of Torah but only from Philosophy… and the Rambam only wrote these as an introduction to the Mishneh Torah while the main part of the book begins with chapter 5…

  R. Menahem Kasher tried to defend the Rambam in what I can only call a bizarre and forced way.

  R. Menahem Kasher, Ha-Adam Al Ha-Yare’ah, ch. 4:

  Question: Is it correct what many are currently saying — that when man reached the moon and dug from it dirt and stones, it was proven wrong what the Rambam wrote in Mishneh Torah, Hilkhos Yesodei Ha-Torah 3:9 and Moreh Nevukhim 2:5, and brings proof (to Aristotle’s position) from Biblical verses and sayings of the Sages, that the heavenly spheres have souls, knowledge and understanding, and live, stand and recognize He Who said and the world came into being?

  Answer: I wrote… the early sages R. Sa’adia Gaon, R. Yehudah Ha-Levi, R. Hisdai Crescas, R. Yitzhak Ibn Latif, the author of Akedas Yitzhak (end of essay 1) and the Abrabanel strongly reject the position of Aristotle and the Rambam… R. Ya’akov Emden, in his book Migdal Oz writes about Aristotle’s position, “It is all nonsense and lies.” And so the Maharal wrote in the introduction to his book Gevuras Hashem, that the Rambam’s position is “nonsense”…

  In the pamphlet Ge’ulas Yisrael of the Maggid of Koznitz, the author attempted to defend the Rambam. He explains [that the heavenly spheres] “are intellects without free will”… We can explain this idea based on what R. Hayim Vital wrote in his book Sha’arei Kedushah (3:1) based on the principles of Kabbalah, that just like there is a soul in a living creature, so too there is a “soul” in an inanimate object. This is the force that combines the four elements… The position of the Rambam is that just like there is knowledge and intellect among the angels, which does not refer to the intellect we have that is connected to our five senses but rather is a spiritual intellect according to their level, we can say the same for the Tohu. [This Tohu] was the first power created by the will of God and remains forever in various forms, at first in the Bohu, i.e. atom, and later in elements and bodies. This force is also called an angel because it is an agent of God to be made into matter. It is not impossible that this force has its own intellect and rules according to its level and recognizes its creator and master…

  We can add that the “intellect” of an item is the rules by which it acts with God’s will and is the essence of its existence. The “soul” of an item is the force that preserves its existence, with God’s will, and is the energy inside it.

  I came across another rabbinic response to the moon landing that takes a somewhat different approach than those discussed above. R. Shlomo Wolbe, in a talk on Shabbos Parashas Ki Seitzei in 1969, used the moon landing as a parable (Da’as Shlomo, Ma’amarei Yemei Ratzon p. 81). Unapologetically and unselfconsciously, he told how the astronauts were quarantined for 21 days after returning to Earth to ensure that no alien bacteria or viruses came back with them. Similarly, he suggested, if there were spiritual beings on the moon they would have quarantined the astronauts for upon landing to ensure they were not bringing any “bacteria” of lack-of-God-fearing, any contamination of irreligiosity. If the Chafetz Chaim, R. Yisrael Meir Kagan, had been the first to land on the moon, he would have seen a pure landscape entirely untainted by irreligiosity, perhaps even attaining the level of prophecy.

  I find this reaction entirely characteristic of a Mussar personality — using contemporary events to illustrate a spiritual point. I also find it noteworthy that R. Wolbe saw no religious challenge in this monumental event, referring to it without skeptical disclaimers or intellectual alarm. Instead, he found a Mussar aspect which could further the goal of deepening fear of God.

  What was the Lubavitcher Rebbes opinion?

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  • Anonymous -3 years ago

    The video gets cut off in the middle. Did you explain the rebees position?

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  • Anonymous -3 years ago

    The Rebee said similiar to rav solevetchik 

    

    

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  • Anonymous -3 years ago

    see http://www.teshura.com/Spitezki-Levin%20-%20Elul%2011%2C%205769.pdf

    all about the Rebbe and the moon see page 19 and on

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• M

  moshe -3 years ago

  Why is it always a struggle to get your shier on YESHIVA.net  (especially live)? I end up watching it on youtube. 

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  • S

    Sara -3 years ago

    Why a struggle? Do you not have the links?

    Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

Rambam Mishneh Torah -- Introduction

Rabbi YY Jacobson

• July 19, 2020
• |
• 27 Tamuz 5780
• |
• 1088 views

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