BRIT-AM BIBLICAL ISRAEL NEWS ONLINE
Contents:
1. Amnon Goldberg: Nuclear Devastation Predicted in Scripture?
2. When and When Not is Scripture to be Taken Literally?
3. Saadia Gaon: The Literal Meaning of Scripture Must be Accepted
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1. Amnon Goldberg: Nuclear Devastation Predicted in Scripture?
From: thaxted@netvision.net.il
Subject: Torah & nuclear war
letter in Sha'ah Tovah August 25:
Dear Sir
The article on the atom bomb (28 Av) reminded one of the Jewish contribution to its development. If Jewish scientists like Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Hans Bethe, Edward Teller, Otto Frisch, Otto Hahn, Fritz Strassmann, Paul Wigner, Leo Szilard and Lise Meitner had not fled Europe, Hitler might have won the war!
"For a fire is kindled in My nostrils that will burn to the depths of She'ol, and devour the Earth and her produce and will set ablaze the foundations of the mountains" (Devorim 32). Rav Boruch Horovitz shlita [May He Live] once said that a special brochoh [blessing] should be instituted after Shacharis [Morning Prayer] each morning for the fact that there hasn't been a nuclear war!
Kabboloh refers to the chochmah [wisdom] of Hashem that is concentrated and compacted in matter as being the koach [strength] mah [what is it?] "the potentiality of what is." The unlocking of the vast energy in the atom is a mere remez [hint] of this potential.
The Midrash Shir Hashirim 2 speaks of the Moshiach coming in a generation deserving of destruction, and indeed that will be capable of destroying itself!
"Damascus will cease being a city: it will be a heap of ruins" (Yeshaya 17). "....fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup" (Tehillim 11).
"The L-rd empties the earth and makes it waste and utterly despoiled . . . the earth mourns and withers, the world languishes and fades away . . . the earth also is defiled under its inhabitants; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left . . . desolation is left in the city and the gate is battered to ruins" (Yeshaya 24).
"A noise shall reach even to the ends of the earth; for the L- rd has a quarrel with the nations . . . evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. And the slain of the L-rd shall be on that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground (Yirmiya 25).
"And it shall come to pass that in all the earth two-thirds shall die . . . and I will bring the third through the fire and refine them . . . and this will be the punishment of the nations . . . their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their sockets, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth" (Zecharya 13 & 14).
With the power of the Atom bomb a person can be standing, and then in the next second before he hits the ground, be completely consumed. Before the Atom bomb, no weapon had the capability of such destruction.
At the time when warships will come to attack Ashur and Ever (Syria and Iran?), Bilom in his last prophecy (Bamidbar 24) wailed, Oy mi yichyeh misumo E-l ? "Woe! Who will survive when G-d does this?" which the Zohar interpolates as mi yichyeh m'Yishmoel? [Who will survive the Arabs?].
May soon be fulfilled Hashem's promise: "Behold I will create a new Heaven and a new Earth; and the former one will not be remembered nor even come to mind!" (Yeshaya 65)
Amnon Goldberg
Tzefas
2. When and When Not is Scripture to be Taken Literally?
Extract from:
Handbook of Jewish Thought
by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, Israel 1979, p.145
Quote:
7:74 The Torah must be studied as a whole, since one ambiguous passage may be clarified by another.178
One must be careful to take an overall view, and not interpret any scripture out of context.179
7:75 There are times when the Torah speaks in allegory and metaphor.180
There are four conditions under which there is a tradition that the Torah is not to be taken according to its literal meaning:181
1. Where the plain meaning is rejected by common experience.
2. Where it is repudiated by obvious logic.182
3.Where it is contradicted by obvious scripture.
4. Where it is opposed by clear Talmudic tradition.183
7:76 Where none of these conditions hold, the scripture must be taken literally, and not rejected on the basis of mere prejudice.184 In such a case, even when a passage is also interpreted allegorically, the literal meaning must still be retained.185
Sources:
178. BaMidbar Rabbah 19:17; Tanchuma, Chukath 23. Cf. Yerushalmi, Rosh HaShanah 3:5 (17a); Tosafoth, Kerithoth 14a, s.v. Elah; Sedey Chemed, P'ath HaSadeh, Dalet 24 (2:134).
179. Rambam, Iggereth Teimon (in Iggereth HaRambam), p. 19. Cf. Berakhoth 10a; Rashi ad loc. s.v. Shapil.
180. Moreh Nevukhim, Introduction, from Hosea 12:11.
181. Emunoth VeDeyoth 7:2 (83a).
182. As in the cases of anthropomorphisms; Moreh Nevukhim 2:25. See above, 2:23.
183. Cf. Minchath Chinukh 232:4; and Zohar 3:85a; Minchath Pittim, Orach Chaim 156; Makor Chesed on Sefer Chasidim 673:1.
184. Emunoth VeDeyoth 7:2.
185. Shabbath 63a; Yevamoth iib, 24a; Teshuvoth Rashbam 415; Rashbam to Genesis 1:1, Ramban on Sefer HaMitzvoth, Shoresh 2 (19b); Maharatz Chajas, Shabbath 63a, Megillah 13a, Yevamoth 79a; HaMikra VeHaMesorah 16. It is for this reason that the Torah is called a "witness;" lkkarim 3:21.
3. Saadia Gaon: The Literal Meaning of Scripture Must be Accepted
Saadiah ben Yosef Gaon (b. Egypt 882/892, d. Baghdad 942)
Translated by Yair Davidiy
