Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Rav Moshe Tendler's lecture on Science and Halacha

Rav Moshe Tendler spoke last week in Har Nof on the topic of science and halacha.  You can download the shiur here.

I hope to review the shiur and provide a useful outline.  He addresses issues such as secular education and knowledge, Rav Moshe Feinstein's (his father-in-law) approach to medical issues, the question of the hyrax chewing its cud, dealing with new scientific information.

5 comments:

  1. Hi,

    I'm very sorry to post it here (could not find your e-mail - you can remove this comment if you want), but I just wanted to share with you my blog that is dedicated to the Tabernacle (Mishkan), dealing mostly with parashot Terumah - Pekudei.

    I think you may find it interesting, particularly the pages dealing with Mishkan corner boards and dimensions of the courtyard.

    Here is the link: http://thedeserttabernacle.blogspot.com/

    Thank you.

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  2. • 3:00 Why did we need an exodus from Egypt? Can take the Jews out of Egypt, but cannot get Egypt out of the Jews.
    • 4:30 We need Yedios haShem rather than emunas haShem; we can only pass along knowledge; we must tell our children and grandchildren that we know it and not just believe it.
    • This is the reason of the exodus and dwelling in the desert for 40 years.
    • It is easy to believe in a creator; believing in a manhig is difficult.
    • 7:00 Yeshivas are psychofrenic; in the morning the Rebbi teaches that the professor is a shagetz; the professor teaches that the Rebbi is a dinosaur.
    • 8:45 Science, Torah, Emunah share certain axioms; there is no chaos; there is order in the universe; Iyov concluded that the world is chaotic and this is where everything terrible happens; denial of hashgacha pratis
    • 9:15 Torah was given to man; relates to man in a way that man can understand; it is a rational world; science tries to understand the world in a rational way;
    • 11:00 Netziv said something that modern roshei yeshivah would deem apikorsos; The menorah has 7 arms; we most go to college to be a talmid chacham; i.e. we need secular knowledge; Torah is the 7th arm;
    • 12:20 Brain stem death; not one Rav who wrote about it (against it) ever saw a brain dead person; Rav Moshe went with Rav Tendler every motzei shabat to see brain dead people; the modern posek says that he does not need to see a brain dead person; he knows what the gemara says.
    • 14:30 Quoting the Gaon;
    • 15:50 A wrong psak is akin to false prophecy and carries the death penalty
    • 16:20 the Rav gave three halachas
    • 18:00 Imagine if the dor hamidbar understood astronomy – would have killed the whole religion
    • 19:30 Parashat shmini; need to know how to differentiate between zoological types; part of the ikrei haTorah

    to be continued be'h!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Interesting! Thanks for posting. We should discuss offline.

    ReplyDelete