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Correspondence

May 1, 1969

Letter to Dr. Fox about His Maimonidean Scholarship and Strauss (1969)

General Jewish Thought
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Student Notes on Philosophy 78 (1969)

ספר התניא - every man has an animal soul, a נפש הבהמתית, vital principle in the body – הנפש הבהמתית, הגוף, ואת הצד האנושי שבאדם. הנפש האלקית – only jews have it, has three parts (1) נפש (2) רוח (3) נשמה – highest of three parts. כמו שהאלוקות מתגלה בי ספירות, כמו כן האדם מתבטא רוחניותו בעשר הספירות. החידוש המיוחד שבתניא
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Letter to Dr. Fox about Spending Shabbat with His Family (1964)

Dear Marvin: Mrs. Arthur Hyman informed me that you will be coming in for Shabbat in order to be present to participate at the Conference on Friday night and Sunday. I am purposely being brief, because I hope to have much more opportunity to talk with you when you get to New York. Please accept this invitation to spend Friday night with me and my family. We are within easy walking distance of Hotel Windermere, where you will be staying. Please be a good fellow and let me know at once that we can expect you.Best wishes to your wife and the little Foxes and regards from my wife and the little Lamms.Cordially yours,RABBI NORMAN LAMMNLsf
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Letter to Dr. Eckstein about His Article on Religion, Science, and Naturalism (1967)

Dear Jerry: Thanks for your undelayed response and the reprints. On the premise that a philosopher cherishes honesty over courtesy, I do hope you will forgive my remarks. After reading your letter, I was going to reaffirm my respect for psychiatry – though by no means my unreserved adulation of Freud and his followers. However, I then read one of jour articles, "The Fall and Rise of Man," and decided to react only briefly – you are quite right about my being quite busy, especially in this season. I find, Jerry, that, as I have always suspected, you are brilliant, but that you suffer from the same defects as do Reik and others of this school. You have weaved an elaborate web of theory based on Freud, Reik, Fromm, and an eclectic study of genesis (its "myths"), and you conclude with a lecture to unrepentant theologians who still seek to protect "religion" against "science" and remain closed to your triumphant version of naturalism which will, no doubt, conquer all. If I’ve put it somewhat crudely, it’s only to emphasize my feeling that this is a case of hubris (not personal, of course) if I’ve ever seen one.Does your Reikian reconstruction of the ”rise”of man really qualify as ”science?” Do you really believe that only the benighted theolo-glans ** especially those of us who still cling to old Biblical "myths" — are disdained by ”scientists?" Certainly you are aware that, without at all deprecating psychiatry, a good case can be made out for psychoanalysis being "unscientific•”Frankly, your analysis **and I had the same feeling when reading Reik’s essays (in German) on tefillin and shofar -* is a superb derashah. with no more authentic claim on ״science'1 than any good sermon or fanciful pilpul can claim to be peshat. The major differ* ence is that when I preach a "gut vort',’ or elaborate a pilpul — No. 1: I know it isn't academically accurate; No.2: I have no pre* tenses as to its scientific validity; No.3: I don't attempt to give it the appearance of scientific va…
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