Dear Sarah,



The nonsense of the Charedi cult is getting worse with the years. Day and night they bring the conclusions of “research” and attribute this drivel to the Holy Spirit manifest in the Sages.

Just a read through some of the essays on our site proves and shows how greatly ignorant were the sages of the Talmud.

But since we are dealing with Rabbi Zamir — whose words, were it not for your question, I would have assumed to be words of madness and confusion — I will show you how his total faith causes him to conceal details (consciously and unconsciously) to sooth his faith which, it seems, the depths of his heart understand and see as nonsense, from a rational point of view.

Like other religious people he uses his mind halfway, a third of the way, a quarter of the way, in a manner which will satisfy his faith, or, as Benedict Spinoza said, “Men of faith turn reason into the handmaiden of their faith.”

Or V’Arachim Institute publishes a series of booklets titled “Torah from the Heavens,” edited by Zamir Cohen. In one of the booklets (Torah and Science part II, 5757, pp/ 29-30) proof is brought about “Torah from the Heavens,” and Zamir writes, “A summary of the natural law spoken in the Torah: the camel, the hyrax, and the hare are the only animals which are ruminant ye do not have split hooves…And there is no other animal (!) which only chews its cud or only has split hooves — aside from those mentioned by the Torah.” He does not mention that neither the hare nor the hyrax are ruminants (see Pamphlet 3).

In that same booklet (pg. 32) under the headline “The Mysterious Life of Plants,” Zamir wrote: “Plants talk. Yes, they scream! Only to Man’s eye do they bear their pain in silence…And look, some two thousand years ago (!) when the Oral Torah was written down, it was written in Pirkei D’Rabbi Elazar (chapter 34): ‘When the tree is cut its voice travels from one end of the world to the other, yet is not heard’…In the holy Torah the creator of the world revealed to us that the voice of the cut-down tree travels from one end of the world to the other (that is, it circles the globe).”

First we will cite the words of the aggaddah:

There are six voices which travel from one end of the world to the other and are not heard:

1. When a fruit-bearing tree is cut down its voice travels from one end of the world to the other, but is not heard.

2. When the snake sheds.

3. When a woman is divorced from her husband.

4. When a virgin first has intercourse with her husband, but her voice is not heard.

5. When the newborn emerges from the body. (A sixth, for some reason, is not mentioned.)

See how much nonsense and bad sense exists in one aggadaic statement.

An even more serious thing: notice the differences between Zamir’s citation and the original. Zamir eliminates the word “fruit-bearing.” According to R’ Elazar, only a fruit-bearing tree which is cut down “screams” from one end of the world to the other, but Zamir, who wishes to accommodate the words of the Sages to the research he presents (I haven’t checked out the study; it’s typical of outreach people to cite the words of scientists considered doubtful by the academic community), draws no distinction between a fruit-bearing tree and one which is not, and so eliminates the word “fruit-bearing.”

Another example of the perversity of this cult’s members was brought in the essay On Letter Skips in the Torah, in which Rabbi Neugroshel lied about the number of letters in a skip code.

N.B. Why not take the trouble to check out for yourself who the questionable lecturer who dealt with purple “auras” was?



Sincerely,



Daat Emet

Hello,



I also join in what is said above. True, in my humble opinion, there are outreach activists who are sometimes dragged into citing scientific words which (in their opinion) match the Torah and are not careful enough to clarify the veracity of the study, and sometimes it seems as though they are even evading (almost consciously) discussing that which they cannot interpret, but this phenomenon exists throughout the world (for example, heretics who evade discussing that which would complicate things for them) but it should not happen amongst those who believe in “From lies distance yourselves.”

Though I find it clear that any scientist who tries to prove faith, etc. will become questionable and people will stop looking at his words straight on, it has happened more than once since in general science is full of the non-religious who would prefer to leave the subject in the mists (you have already shown your stance in an answer, stating that being an academic doesn’t guarantee seeking the truth when the topic is religious academicians), yet I admit that those who speak of purple auras also seem odd to me. Faith does not rely upon scientists like these.

But this is not enough to lead to generalizations and say that religious people are liars and cheats, and it is not enough to lead to a rejection of the truth, just as I won’t reject your ideas simply because you evade discussion of certain topics. (For some reason, just when I think I’ve explained myself most clearly [Torah Myths] my words don’t make it onto the site.)

If your words will mean that scholars and lecturers will take more care with their words, then that’s good.



David

Hello.



I left out a few words and would greatly appreciate it if you would add them.

In my opinion, those who are not careful to verify every citation before a lecture do not do so with the purpose of “pulling one off” on people, but because they have been imbued with faith as clear proof (most of them are returnees to religion) and to their minds, if there is a G-d anything is possible (even auras), and therefore they believe these things sooner than a secular person would (because the secular person rejects it out of hand) and their attempts to verify the issues are weakened.

In this they err, (a) because they need to prove it to the secular, and (b) in my view there is no faith-based reason for auras, etc., because that which is spiritual has no place for the physical at all and will not be seen in any research. (I know there were such opinions in philosophy and there is an explanation in the Kabbalah, but for some reason there is no reason for it; if you wish, I can go into this at more length.)



Thanks in advance,



David

Dear David,



Sarah wrote that she heard Zamir’s ridiculous claims at a seminar organized by Arachim. Since you claim that the Jewish religion has logical and “scientific” claims, you are invited to explain the Arachim organization’s claims to us.

We would be very happy if an official representative of that organization would present its claims.



Sincerely,



Daat Emet