This shiur is a continuation of last week’s shiur. Rabbi Triebitz answers the question he posed in shiur 15 regarding whether G-d’s knowledge is similar to that of human knowledge or not.
The answer (in case you can’t guess from the title) is to do with Ontology and Ethics. Sources are the same as those for the previous shiur.
You can watch and download the shiurim below. As always please send any comments, thoughts, ideas or criticisms to admin at hashkafacircle.com
This shiur begins the analysis of the 10th Principle of Rambam - G-d’s Knowledge. Rabbi Triebitz finds a fundamental contradiction in the writings of Rambam on the issue of G-d’s knowledge, which seems to undermine Rambam’s explanation of the contradiction between free choice and G-d’s knowledge.
Hopefully tomorrow I’ll put up links to the sources, but in the meantime here is the shiur. Enjoy.
You can watch and download the shiurim below. As always please send any comments, thoughts, ideas or criticisms to admin at hashkafacircle.com
This shiur is not ‘Purim Torah’ but is relevant to Purim, so if you are still sober it is worth listening to it today!
In this shiur Rabbi Triebitz discusses Rambam’s 9th principle - that the Torah of Moshe may not be added to or subtracted from by the prophets. He then points out apparent contradictions from the Introduction to the Commentary on the Mishna, the Introduction to Mishne Torah, and the Laws of Megillah.
It seems that there are many laws which have been added to Judaism by the prophets in apparent contradiction to Rambam’s principle. Rabbi Triebitz gives two explations - the safe one (which is good) and the dangerous one (which is cutting edge).
This shiur is dedicated to the Fogel family who were murdered tonight in Itamar by Palestinian terrorists. May their souls be bound in the bonds of eternal life.
In this shiur Rabbi Triebitz proposes a radical new solution to a classic problem (which has been bothering him for many years). In Moreh Nevuchim II:33 Rambam clearly states that at Mount Sinai the Children of Yisrael heard only a sound, but did not hear any of the words of G-d. Moshe reported to them what G-d had told him. Yet in Yesodei HaTorah 8:2 (in Mishne Torah) Rambam writes that the people heard G-d say “Moshe, Moshe, go and tell them such and such…”
Rabbi Triebitz bases his answer on the different girsa’ot of the Gemara in Bava Batra 15a regarding the last 8 verses of the Torah.
You can watch and download the shiurim below. As always please send any comments, thoughts, ideas or criticisms to admin at hashkafacircle.com
In this shiur Rabbi Triebitz discusses the eighth principle. He focuses in particular on the Rambam’s assertion of Divine origin of the Oral Law. What part of the Oral Law did Rambam believe to be from Sinai. The discussion centers around the Rambam’s term “peirushim mekubalim”.
Rabbi Triebitz points out a fundamental argument between the Arizal as presented by the Tanya, and Nefesh HaChaim regarding the supremacy of Moshe Rabbeinu’s chochma. The Ari/Tanya claim that Moshe’s attainment of chochma was not as great as that of the Arizal. This appears to contradict Rambam’s 7th principle, that Moshe attained the highest level of chochma of anyone before or after him. Rav Tzadok and the Tanya both try to explain this apparent contradiction.
Nefesh HaChaim explains that Adam HaRishon before the sin attained the highest level of wisdom, but that Moshe was the only person after the sin to ever attain a comparable (though not quite as high) level. This is clearly an attack on the Tanya (and possibly the Arizal).
Rabbi Triebitz also brings the Leshem who explains the nature of the sin of Adam, and how it connects to chochma.
The sources for this shiur:
Tanya Iggeret HaKodesh chapter 19
Nefesh HaChaim 1:15 (which you can find at http://he.wikisource.org/wiki/ and then write (in Hebrew letters) nefesh_hachaim_shaar_aleph_perek_tetvav) but I can’t make that into a link because of the Hebrew letters
In this article at Seforim Blog, Marc Shapiro reviews (amongst other things) one of Rabbi Triebitz’s Reshimu articles.
Have a look at what he says there Amongst other things he writes:
Returning to Maimonides and creation, I want to call attention to a very interesting article by R Meir Triebitz. It appears in Reshimu, vol. 1 no. 2 (2008), the journal of the so-called Hashkafa Circle. See here.
As explained in the preface to the first volume, this “Circle” aims to fill a gap in haredi yeshiva education by focusing on the classics of medieval Jewish philosophy which are pretty much ignored in contemporary haredi society. We thus have a situation where great talmudists and halakhists ignore major themes of Jewish philosophy, which were dealt with at length by the medieval sages. When there are theological discussions in haredi literature, they invariably reflect a very conservative position, often at variance with the major rishonim. I already touched on this issue in my conclusion to The Limits of Orthodox Theology, and if Triebitz and his group are successful this situation could be reversed.
Click on the link to read the full review, and why he thinks hashkafa circle will never succeed in fulfilling its mission statement.
Rabbi Triebitz addresses the contradiction between the 7th and 8th Ikarim. In the 7th, Rambam writes that Moshe reached the pinnacle of human achievement and prophecy, whereas in the 8th Rambam writes that Moshe was simply a ’scribe’ writing down G-d’s words. It would seem that these two are irreconcilable. Rabbi Triebitz explains with a new and innovative approach to Moshe Rabbeinu and his role as the first Chacham as well as the first Navi.
Sources for this shiur:
Rambam’s first two shorashim in his introduction to Sefer HaMitzvot
In this shiur Rabbi Triebitz discusses the 7th Principle, the prophecy of Moshe Rabbeinu. He looks at Rambam’s distinctions between the prophecy of Moshe and that of all other prophets. He also claims that the book that Rambam claims that he will write about the prophecy of Moshe is in fact Moreh Nevuchim.