Exchange about Principles of Faith and the Dichotomy Between Mitzvah and Aveirah (1969)

/ Exchange about Principles of Faith and …

Correspondence

March 1969

Exchange about Principles of Faith and the Dichotomy Between Mitzvah and Aveirah (1969)

Faith

1. Correspondent 8 to R. Lamm

1. Correspondent 8 to R. Lamm (March 11, 1969)

1. Correspondent 8 to R. Lamm (March 11, 1969)

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The Principles of Judaism

Some of the fundamental Principles of Judaism will be ex,mined in this course, with an emphasis on their formation from a contemporary perspective. The principles discussed will treated from the point of view of Jewish philosophy, history, and The subject matter will be grouped about the three poles of Ged, Torah, and Israel. I. God. A. The Belief in a Personal God 1. Theism vs. Deism and pantheism 2. The sources of religious commitment 3. The nature of religious experience. B. Idolatry. 1. In the Bible and Prophets 2.Its larger meaning 3. Contemporary significance C. Creation. D. Providence. 1. Nature and the Supernatural 2. Theories of providence 3. Scientific causality and divine freedom 4. Miracles E. Revelation. 1. The phenomenon of prophecy 2. Sinai 3. Ruach Ha-kodesh

Assorted

בעיות בפילוסופיה היהודית (1969)

נושא ראשון: עיקרי הדת ובעית הדוגמטיקה 1. י"ג העיקרים. א. קריאה בפה"מ להרמב"ם ב. השוואה למשנה תורה הל' תשובה (קריאה והרצאה) ג. השוואה למו"נ וסיכום (הרצאה) 2. בעית הדוגמטולוגיה. א. הקדמה. ב. הרמבם ומחייבי הדוגמטולוגיה 3. מתנגדי הרמבם במיון ד. מתנגדי הדוגמטולוגיה עקרונית. נושא ראשון. 1. י"ג העיקרים (קריאה בכתה של פה"מ להרמבם, פרק החלק, סנהדרין. על התלמידים לזכר את העיקרים) ב. השוואה לשמנה תורה הלכות תשובה. (על התלמידים להכין מראש

Correspondence

Exchange about Divine Authorship of the Torah (1971)

Dear Rabbi Lamm, שליט"א, My name is [redacted], and I am 22 years of age. Until approximately 3 months ago my השקפה was, by Jewish Orthodox standards, a rather "healthy" one. (I was planning to go into חינוך.) At that time I decided to devote a portion of my day to the study of תנ"ך, a לימוד which I had neglected since my elementary school days. This proved to be a painful experience. For as I read, my belief in the doctrine of תורה מן השמים steadily diminished.My problem is essentially this: If תורה was, in fact, divinely inspired, why is there barely any indication in the text itself? Let me illustrate this with an example: If a certain poem has traditionally been attributed to a brilliant and profound thinker, I would naturally expect to find a lot of brilliance and profundity in the poem itself. Now, if the poem turned out to be shallow and primitive, (i.e. I did not deem it brilliant or profound) I would have severe doubts about the authenticity of the tradition I received. Well, a book which was allegedly authored by the Supreme Intelligence should ק"ו בן בנו של ק"ו be rife with attestations to this fact. And yet, turning to the תורה, I fail to find anything of the sort.What אמונה I do possess is derived from three sources:1) גימטריא, נוטריקון and other scriptural phenomena. (I am referring, not to the wild mathematical games some חסידים play, but to those phenomena which, I feel, simply cannot be attributed to coincidence).2) Prophecies in the תורה which were later realized.3) An intuition that certain פסוקים and events in תורה have esoteric meaning.I hope you will be kind enough to advise me as to what course of action I ought to take.Thanking you in advance,Sincerely Yours,[redacted]