Dear Momi,



You are indeed quite correct!

Daat Emet reminds and sharpens in the public mind what was known to the greats of the Jewish nation, those who left the world view of total faith in the Revelation which negates reason — Benedict Spinoza, Moses Mendelssohn, Solomon Maimon…the list goes on.

I will cite for you the words of the Jewish philosopher Solomon Maimon (1753-1800) who was a Talmudic genius [from Solomon Maimon: an Autobiography, published by L’Gvulum in cooperation with Mossad Bialik, Tel Aviv 5713]: “In my father’s study there was a bookcase full of books, but he forbade me to read any aside from the Talmud, but nothing helped…The dry Talmudic issues…the most strange imaginations of the rabbis and the vapid investigations are discussed with great intensity over many volumes and with great spiritual power. For example: How many white hairs disqualify the red heifer from being a red heifer? Is one permitted to kill a louse or a flea on the Sabbath? [See Pamphlet 1]. Should an animal be slaughtered from the head or the tail? If the leverite falls off the roof and impales himself on the woman he is to perform a levirate marriage with [his sexual organ penetrates her] has he fulfilled his leverite obligation or not? Please compare, I say, these delicacies which pass across the desks of the young and fill them to gorging, with a book of history, in which naturally occurring events are retold in a sophisticated and pleasant manner, with a book of information on the structure of the world which widens a person’s view of nature — and I am certain that you will justify my choice.”



Sincerely,



Daat Emet

Dear Avi,



Most of the Talmud deals with issues which are obsolete and are disordered. This is what Maimon meant, and this is what Daat Emet has proven in its many articles.

You must understand that the Talmud is not a book of academic information in any field: it is not a book of history nor astronomy nor geography nor mathematics…it is a religious work which is largely irrelevant to even the religious.



The Talmud is divided into six sections:

The tractates of Cleannesses and Holy Things are not relevant.

The laws of Damages are not relevant after the rule “all follows the customs of the land” was given, and even Rabbinical courts do not judge according to Talmudic conclusions, but according to common sense modern criteria.

Most of tractate Seeds is not relevant — the corner, the gleanings, and the forgotten produce, tithes to the kohen, and the laws of the shmitta year are strange Rabbinical regulations “in case the Holy Temple is ever rebuilt.”



In practice, the yeshiva world today indulges in empty and nonsensical disputations. What is sad is that the best minds amongst the students are channeled to sharpening and explaining issues which have no practical value at all.



This is instead of discussing with the yeshiva students relevant issues like the status of women, the relationship to gentiles and apostates, the relationship to the sovereign state of Israel, etc.

If you study the society created by the Charedi community you will find that they remained with the lifestyle of a foreign community, under foreign rule, just as they have for the past 2000 years of exile.



Sincerely,



Daat Emet

David,



Good and evil are value judgments. The Zionist movement — the direct continuation of the Enlightenment, that is, the shaking off of Torah and the commandments, rejecting the orthodox view that suffering and the exile are a product of the “Divine” will — champions the values of the new age: enlightenment, rationality, and political independence. Jewish religious people, of whom you are one, champion preserving the old, the commandments, suffering and the exile. At these points there is an uncompromising clash of values between the two viewpoints.

As for your final words: the world of the yeshiva is primarily interested in Talmudic issues which are irrelevant. “The ox which gored a cow and made her miscarry,” etc. Yeshiva students do not learn the history of the Jewish people, they do not know the chain of events in the Hashmonean period nor the destruction of the Second Temple. All their “historical” knowledge comes from the Talmud, which is a theological religious text and does not attempt to teach history.

Ask a standard yeshiva student when Cyrus’s declaration was made, or when the revolt of the messianic Bar-Kochba took place.



Sincerely,



Daat Emet