Thursday, December 16, 2010

Things That Make You Go "Hmmm!"

Yes, I know it's a complicated subject, and the speaker may have just been quoting others, and that this is his style, and that YU, to its great credit and benefit, is home to many different views and voices. But the rationalist in me cringed just a bit when I heard this line in a shiur- a very good shiur, don't get me wrong- on YUTorah:
...the commentators say that perhaps the source of the Rambam is the Zohar...
I'm thinking of Walter Sobchak for some reason:
...You see, it all goes back to the concept of "aish." Many learned men have disputed this over the centuries, but in the Fourteenth Century, the Rambam...he...
Later in the shiur, he says, when discussing the Hebron Yeshiva,
...unfortunately it was challenged by the riots of 1929...
Well, that's certainly one way of putting it. (Link not for the tender-hearted.) I always liked the way Meir Kahane put it in "Never Again". After describing the riots, he adds, parenthetically, "(The white flags came out quickly in Hebron in 1967.)"

3 comments:

Marcus Brody said...

Except that de Leon started writing the Zohar at the earliest 55 years after Rambam died.

Nachum said...

Exactly my point.

MiMedinat HaYam said...

actually, rav goren didnt notice he paassed the front, and ended up in chevron alone (proving that "kibush yachid" is possible, even today). he got on the radio, and was told to back up. proving r kahane h"yd right.