Jewish philosophy as well as Jewish perspectives - i.e. not only formal philosophy. NOT for questions about Jewish practice unless there's a philosophical component.
2
votes
3answers
205 views
How do we make sure that we are on the rightful religion/path?
I borrowed (with permission) a question from Ahmed Han, which is:
People of every religion claim that they are the ones in the right
path. Even the people of sects in these religions think that ...
7
votes
0answers
91 views
Do not separate yourself from the community: what exactly is the community?
Hillel teaches in Pirke Avot (2:4): do not separate yourself from the community. I'm not a historian, but I have the impression that at the time he was writing, towns tended to have one (Jewish) ...
11
votes
3answers
218 views
Do people have an effect on the mood of God?
If a person commits idolatry or fornication he is sinful. Not only that, but the curse of Hashem is with that person. On the other hand, if a person does a lot of mitswots (commandments) and believes ...
3
votes
1answer
147 views
Does G-d approve or merely permit human consumption of meat?
Many vegetarians and vegans argue that G-d gave humans permission to eat meat only because of a human failing in abstaining anyway. My takeaway from that argument is that, in light of a more ...
5
votes
3answers
137 views
How can people effectively bless when blessing is God's domain?
How do people have the power to bless? Yitzchak's blessings for his sons pretty much came true, and similarly later when Yaakov blesses his children and earlier (in the inverse) Noach curses Canaan. ...
2
votes
0answers
35 views
What does it mean to make up for prayers unavoidably missed - Tashlumin?
The laws of Tashlumin (making up for prayers unavoidably missed) are delineated in Halachipedia
“If one forgot to say Shacharit one should say Mincha twice, the first
for Mincha and the second ...
3
votes
1answer
100 views
Importance of learning grammar
What are the traditional Jewish opinions about the importance of learning and speaking Hebrew with proper grammar (dikduk)?
4
votes
1answer
95 views
Ideology of R' S. R. Hirsch
Perhaps someone can summarize the idea of "Torah im Derech Eretz" as endorsed by R' Samson Raphael Hirsch.
1
vote
1answer
126 views
Is animal sacrifice practised among modern Jews? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Why don't Jews sacrifice animals anymore?
From my reading of the Bible I understand that animal sacrifice was used to atone for one's sins.
Is this still practiced ...
-1
votes
2answers
128 views
Why have great rabbis written of their hard times?
Rambam:
And that was a most terrible event as my brother drowned in the Indian Ocean, he had taken such care of me and now I was left alone and bewildered in a strange land.
Rabbi Moshe ...
5
votes
3answers
147 views
2
votes
2answers
132 views
How much of this world is really ordained by Heaven?
On another website, someone quoted the Rambam:
I do not believe that it is through the interference of Divine Providence that a certain leaf drops [from a tree], nor do I hold that when a certain ...
1
vote
4answers
300 views
Why do we count years from the date of Creation?
Why do we count years from the date of Creation? I intend two sub-questions here, of which the second is far more interesting, so please answer it:
Whence did this tradition originate?
Why do we ...
0
votes
3answers
191 views
Did G-d create evil? [closed]
Did G-d create evil? Scripture says that G-d created everything, right? So then if G-d indeed created everything, does that mean He created evil?
Is there Old Testament evidence for why He did or ...
10
votes
3answers
251 views
Why in judaism - when discussing the Torah - do I see a lot of answers referring to writings of different Rabbis?
Sorry for the simpleness of this question. I've been trying to study the Torah as much as possible. I do not know Hebrew (though I'd truly like to and would appreciate any advice on how to get ...
11
votes
4answers
212 views
Did hardening Paro's heart mean he wasn't really responsible?
As a child I often wondered how, if God kept hardening Paro's heart after each plague, it could really be Paro's fault. It sounds like God was setting him up to fail, and while that's God's ...
6
votes
1answer
122 views
Da' Mah LeHashiv vs. teaching Torah to non-Jews
Is the paradigm of Da' Mah LeHashiv limited to heretical Jews, and that of the restriction on teaching Torah to non-Jews limited only to non-Jews (excluding heretical Jews), such that there is never ...
5
votes
4answers
283 views
Hashem is here and there and everywhere?
Is Hashem really in front of us, behind us, next to us, etc?
6
votes
1answer
77 views
Was divrei kabalah practiced before the nevi'im?
The Nevi'im sometimes got prophecies and wrote them down in Nevi'im or Kesuvim, and from those prophecies, we learn divrei kabalah. We learn things like oneg, mimtzo cheftzecha, and daber davar on ...
6
votes
6answers
250 views
Tikkun Olam source
What is the source for the concept that Jews have to practice Tikkun Olam, and where in the classical Jewish sources is this concept defined? It seems people throw this term around a lot in the ...
4
votes
1answer
88 views
Is “You Shall Choose Life” ever interpreted literally?
Inspired by Did people ever place actual physical stumbling blocks before the blind?
In Devarim 30:19, we are told by G-d to "choose life":
This day, I call upon the heaven and the earth as ...
2
votes
2answers
79 views
VeNiShmartem - Positive or Negative?
VeNiShmartem Meod LeNafshotheichem (Devarim 4:15), the Mitzvah of self-preservation - requiring that we guard our health - sounds rather proactive. However, it is written with the word ShMR, to ...
1
vote
2answers
167 views
Is it permitted to be upset after your favourite soccer team lost an important match?
I have a friend who is extremely into international sports games. When the team that he supports loses an important game, he gets really upset. When his team recently got kicked out of the ...
4
votes
1answer
98 views
Why make a bracha on an earthquake but not on an eclipse?
According to this page, Chaza"l intentionally omitted solar and lunar eclipses from the list of natural phenomena upon which we make a bracha. The following explanation is given:
"The Hebrew term ...
3
votes
1answer
447 views
English translation of Rambam's Moreh Nevuchim (Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed) on the Internet?
Is there an English translation on the Internet of Rambam's philosophic treatise on Jewish philosophy, Moreh Nevuchim?
7
votes
2answers
128 views
Why do different people have different levels of mitzvah obligation?
If the point of giving us mitzvot is to allow us to earn a reward in olam haba and to perfect creation (there's all of Jewish philosophy boiled down into 102 characters), why wouldn't all Jewish ...
6
votes
1answer
134 views
Jewish views on patriotism/nationalism
I heard a lecture in which a rabbi espoused very. negative views against nationalism in a July 4th speech. What are Jewish sources that counter his claim, that is, sources in which the Rabbis/great ...
7
votes
1answer
128 views
Free will a prerequisite for punishment?
I read that the angel Metat was subjected to 60 pulsei de-nura (Aramaic: פולסא דנורא "lashes of fire"). I have been taught that angels do not have free will. Did this angel act from free will or did ...
12
votes
5answers
401 views
Why is there so much stuff?
If the point of all of creation is for the Jewish people to accept and carry out the torah [I realize this is not axiomatic and may be a point of contention - see Shabbat 88a] what is the need for the ...
2
votes
1answer
61 views
Reconciling the Torah and history regarding the Jews' response to reward and punishment
How do we reconcile the Torah's viewpoint that punishments make Jews better with what we see that punishments push Jews away (and rewards make Jews better)?
The Gemara says that Mashiach will come ...
7
votes
0answers
85 views
Punishment in this World or in the World To Come
It says that (in general) Hashem lets a righteous person suffer in this world to cleanse him from sins (so he will have no more sins in the World to Come), while Hashem lets a wicked person prosper in ...
11
votes
4answers
5k views
11
votes
3answers
130 views
What are Rambam's “עיקרים”?
Rambam, in his Commentary to the Mishna (Sanhedrin 10), enumerates 13 "עיקרים" or "יסודות", which he holds are the core "principles" that every Jew is expected to believe. (Summary in English.)
But ...
5
votes
3answers
256 views
Why does Judaism require more orthodoxy than other religions?
Why is Judaism comprised of so many precise stringencies in comparison to other religions?
Why is conversion to Judaism so strict and difficult?
12
votes
1answer
860 views
Why does the Jewish calendar HAVE to end?
It seems to be common knowledge that on or around the year 6,000 of the Jewish calendar "everything" (left intentionally vague) will come to an end and there will be a 1,000 year 'Shabbos'. I'm ...
7
votes
1answer
120 views
Fasting for non Religious Reasons?
I was recently asked to fast as a part of a multi-faith community fast as spiritual preparation for doing voter engagement work (I work for a multi-faith, multi-ethnic community organization.)
Here ...
4
votes
0answers
62 views
Is the idea that there is always at least one illness with an unknown cure - a Jewish idea?
I have heard many times that there will always be at least one illness that is uncurable. Is this a Jewish idea? What is its source?
12
votes
2answers
296 views
How do we know that we have free will?
Where in the torah does it state that humans have, and are entitled to in perpetuity, free will?
2
votes
1answer
62 views
How can the prohibition against murder be reconciled with capital punishment in the Torah (mitath beth din)?
How can the prohibition on murder be reconciled with capital punishment in the Torah, i.e., mitath beth din? I understand that the death penalty was effectively abolished by the Sanhedrin in 30 CE. ...
7
votes
3answers
379 views
Zeh klal gadol batorah - really?
In the Talmud Yerushalmi, Nedarim 9:4
ואהבת לרעך כמוך: אמר רבי עקיבא זה כלל גדול בתורה:
"You shall love your fellow as yourself. Said Rabbi Akiva: This is a great principle in the Torah."
...
11
votes
7answers
950 views
How does Judaism deal with God and paradoxes?
How does Judaism deal with paradoxes relating to the omnipotence of God?
For example: Can God create a rock that he himself cannot lift?
43
votes
2answers
511 views
Does “reputation scoring” make “the Torah a crown to magnify yourself with”?
I apologise in advance if this is not the place to ask this question.
Is "reputation scoring" against the spirit of Pirkei Ovos 4 (5) "Rabbi Tzaddok would say: Do not make the Torah a crown to ...
0
votes
2answers
110 views
Why is the world round? [closed]
Why does shabbat start at different times at different places? Crossing a time zone does not conjure up a time warp, so how can it be Friday in one place, and Shabbat in another? It just doesn't ...
2
votes
0answers
112 views
Must one go according to his/her opinion (leshitato)?
Imagine that a Halakhic Decisor (decider?) maintains a certain Halakhic position or Hashkafic belief. [I am assuming that such thing as a Hashkafic Decisor exists.] Anyway, is it imperative that s/he ...
4
votes
3answers
76 views
Helping others succeed
What do you do when you are trying to help friends get themselves on a good track, but you are afraid that by helping them you yourself might fall...what is the Torah obligation here?
12
votes
6answers
346 views
Being a light to the nations - what does it mean?
I'm working on this as my project for a yeshiva program, and I'd like some input
What does the concept actually mean? It's only mentioned briefly in most of our scripture and commentary.
Are there ...
8
votes
6answers
469 views
does one have to take a Midrash/Aggadah literally?
Does one have to take a Midrash/Aggadah literally?
11
votes
4answers
244 views
Voting for a person that will not uphold Torah values
It is well known that Rabbi Avigdor Miller Zatzal strongly condemned those that voted for candidates that would not uphold Torah values. Yet there were many Gedolim that had no problem voting for such ...
5
votes
1answer
129 views
how do we get out of non-achdus and golus? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
What are some practical things we can do to bring Moshiach?
Given that we are still in galus (physical as well as spiritual exile), and given that our sages tell us the ...
11
votes
6answers
488 views
Reconciling the evidence for the Uncertainty Principle with belief in an omniscient G-d
One of the foundations of modern quantum mechanics is the Uncertainty Principle. This principle is not an assumption, but rather is derived from assumptions made with regard to the structure of ...
