Topic Wiki

I'm going to try to make an index of the questions and answers here. I'm thinking of writing a short summary of the question/topic then writing the reply number, date, author (in case someone deletes a post it should still be findable). And writing locations of relevant replies on that question.

Question 1- Why did Hashem want to create the world? (Reply #1, 8/29/17, Starstruck)

See reply #78 8/31/17 churnbabychurn. #26 8/30/17 chbochur. #53 8/30/17 starstruck. #65 8/30/17 chbochur.

Question 2 - Why does beis din have to give punishments, can't Hashem give it? (#77 8/31/17 starstruck)

See reply #99 9/01/17 zh Cohen. #147 9/06/17 starstruck.

Question 3 - Why isn't there a sefeika d'yoma by Yom Kippur (but by Sukkos there is)? (#88 9/01/17 Dan)

See pages 7,8,9,10

Question 4 - Why is it נוח לו לאדם שלא נברא יותר משנברא if the whole purpose of the world is to be meitiv? ( #112 9/01/17 chbochur)

See #146 9/05/17 aygart and quoted conversations.


Author Topic: Jewish Philosophy  (Read 25435 times)

Offline aygart

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Re: Jewish Philosophy
« Reply #60 on: August 30, 2017, 09:56:10 PM »
Feelings don't care about your facts

Offline ChaimMoskowitz

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Re: Jewish Philosophy
« Reply #61 on: August 30, 2017, 10:07:01 PM »
Now I know WHY I have such a hard time with most of you.  >:(
I just found a new supply of forks!

Offline joe1234

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Re: Jewish Philosophy
« Reply #62 on: August 30, 2017, 10:55:57 PM »
I want to start a new thread about Jewish philosophy. I searched the forums and couldn't find something like it, so I'm making a new one.

The point of this thread is so anybody can ask any question related to jewish hashkafa/beliefs. And that anybody can give their serious opinion or answer on the matter. If necessary debate it.

The questions, answers, comments, follow-up questions, and follow-up answers should be as short as they can be.

But it doesn't have to be questions or answers that were thought over for a long time. The point of this thread is the discussion.
Hey X(anonymous), Y(why) is a crooked letter, can't you Z(see)?

Offline good sam

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Re: Jewish Philosophy
« Reply #63 on: August 30, 2017, 11:08:32 PM »


I want to start a new thread about Jewish philosophy. I searched the forums and couldn't find something like it, so I'm making a new one.
Funniest part of this whole thread! You couldn't find a thread that discusses Jewish philosophy?
If you don't care why would you comment?
HT: DMYD

Offline Yammer

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Re: Jewish Philosophy
« Reply #64 on: August 30, 2017, 11:12:14 PM »
Guys I really want to see this topic expand 😆...you'll have all your popcorn later...

Offline chbochur

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Re: Jewish Philosophy
« Reply #65 on: August 30, 2017, 11:24:51 PM »
I don't know the teitsh to אתכפיא ואתהפכא and I don't know what ונה"ב stands for so could be I'm missing out on a critical part of what's written.

I still want to follow up on what you're saying. Why does Hashem have a "tayva"? Doesn't a tayva for something mean that you're in a way bound to that tayva. After all we have such a concept when it comes to people's tayvos. Who's considered bnei chorin, us or the goyim?

Does it make sense to say that Hashem is bound by anything?

Besides for the concept of bondage. Doesn't the concept of a tayva mean you're missing something. And after you fulfill your tayva you get into a higher and happier state of mind.

If so how can you say such a concept about Hashem? Is He missing anything?
(not to take away from the fun everyone is having but...)

yes, you missed the entire point by not knowing the terms iskafya ishapcha נה"ב = nefesh habihamis and what taivos are, (i am sure you know what they are, but chassidus has a total different understanding on how these things effect our lives and how we work with them to fulfill our mission in oilam hazeh).


  every person (including umois haolam) are born with a Nefesh Habihamis, it is the materialistic soul that just wants what is good for the physical body of the person. a Jew in addition to the Nefesh Habihamis is also born with a Nefesh Elokis that wants the best for the spiritual being of the person (and this is where the battle begins... and causes for 'taivos') 


Now what is a taiveh? 

A taiveh is loosely translated as a wanting or "lust" in other words an urge, something is driving you to want whatever the taiveh may be (for our conversation it is always for something that you enjoy only in oilam hazeh). now the question is what is the urge, is it something holy does it help you serve Hashem, or is it coming from somewhere else, now in chassidus usually it refers to something that is lo lahashem heimah, may it be something that is in fact an issur or it may be a dvar reshus but it is not intended to help you serve hashem, now if it is an issur then there is only one real way to deal with it and that method is called iskafya. iskafya is when the yetzer harah has a desire or lust and urges to do something asher lo lahashem and you 'push it away with two hands' and 'force' the yetzer harah to follow the yetzer hatov, (iskafya is from the word koifeh) this is done through moiach shalit al halev that every Jew has within him and just needs to bring it out (not for now to go into all the details on this concept). now obviously for people like me (and maybe you) it is not practical to always win the battle over the yetzer harah, so the question arises why? why bother even starting the battle? at some point i am going to loose the battle anyway! so why even bother trying?  the answer to this is based off the zohar which says כד אתכפיא סטרא אחרא אסתלק יקרא דקודשא בריך הוא בכולהו עלמין that whenever someone serves hashem in a way of iskafya (and pushes away the yetzer harah) it causes a great nachas ruach above to which no other can compare, and causes that the kavod and glory of hashem to shine greater in all worlds and especially in our (lowest) world. So to answer your question, no we are not bound to our taivos, (or at least our goal in oilam hazeh is to struggle and battle and (hopefully) overcome them. this is the avoidah through iskafya which is the avoidah for people striving to be beinunim (and as the saying guess halivei beinuni - we wish on our selves to be considered a beinuni - also something that i wont elaborate on here).


Then there is ishapcha which is instead of 'pushing it away' (ideally you transform the yetzer hara into only wanting things that lahashem heimah) you transform your taiveh and use it to serve hashem better although this is generally the avoidah of tzadikim (since at the end there is no ra - evil in it). yet there are times when even a beinuni can serve hashem through this method (but im not goona get into it). 



Not sure how free choice gets involved here, and I in no way intend to discuss it, but to answer simply (with no explanation to why) according to chassidus only Bnei Yisroel are truly bnei choirn (how that works with hashem being hamadoh vhayoideiah is also not for now).


your next question does it make sense to say that Hashem is bound by anything? I will answer with one line in quoted and elaborated in chassidus from the Avodas Hakodesh "כמו שיש לו כח בבלתי בעל גבול כך יש לו כח בגבול. שאם תאמר שיש לו כח בבלתי בעל גבול ואין לו כח בגבול, אתה מחסר שלימותו. ואין סוף הוא שלימותא דכולא. there are sevreal mamorim that explain this concept (but once again i am not going to elaborate here).


your last question how can we say Hashem had a taiveh (the fact that Hashem has this taiveh is a medrash which is Torah of which we say that it is a toiras emes so we can't question that). It is impossible for us to understand why Hashem has such a taiveh, for we are bound by our own intellect and can not understand anything that is higher then us and our low world especially something that is not limited to us our the way we understand things.


Anyhow all the above concepts are explained in length in chassidus and will take a lifetime to understand (or at least to understand that you will never understand properly) Hashems ways.



Offline koplonko

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Re: Jewish Philosophy
« Reply #66 on: August 30, 2017, 11:47:56 PM »

Offline yochiek93

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Re: Jewish Philosophy
« Reply #67 on: August 31, 2017, 07:19:18 AM »
It is a Jewish philosophy to ask why.
unfortunately today if you ask why you are an אפיקורס

Offline Emkay

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Re: Jewish Philosophy
« Reply #68 on: August 31, 2017, 07:26:53 AM »
unfortunately today if you ask why you are an אפיקורס
Maybe in your circles.....

Offline koplonko

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Re: Jewish Philosophy
« Reply #69 on: August 31, 2017, 02:32:46 PM »
I don't agree with #7. "Why" would you ask that?
This is Jewish philosophy...

Offline Work-for-ur-muny

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Re: Jewish Philosophy
« Reply #70 on: August 31, 2017, 02:46:12 PM »
unfortunately today if you ask why you are an אפיקורס
FTFY

Offline Work-for-ur-muny

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Re: Jewish Philosophy
« Reply #71 on: August 31, 2017, 02:47:01 PM »
"WHY" is this thread not in JS?

Offline mmgfarb

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Re: Jewish Philosophy
« Reply #72 on: August 31, 2017, 02:48:19 PM »
"WHY" is this thread not in JS?
Finally, a good question.
"JS [is] a fetid cesspool of unvarnished linguistic manure, with lots of useless drivel and post-padding." -Moishebatchy

Offline whYME

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Re: Jewish Philosophy
« Reply #73 on: August 31, 2017, 02:51:28 PM »
Funniest part of this whole thread! You couldn't find a thread that discusses Jewish philosophy?
My thoughts exactly.

Offline aygart

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Re: Jewish Philosophy
« Reply #74 on: August 31, 2017, 03:08:14 PM »
Maybe in your circles.....
+1 My rabbeim always encouraged me to ask questions. They also were not scared to say they didn't know an answer. I used to sometimes call R Avigdor Miller during his lunchbreak with questions. He made me feel like he had all the time in the world for me until 3:07:30pm (made up-I don't remeber the real time) when he said "hatlocho gedola v'chol tuv and hung up on me to bench and leave to mincha.

א"ל כל שאלות שיש לך לשאול שאל
Feelings don't care about your facts

Offline Starstruck

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Re: Jewish Philosophy
« Reply #75 on: August 31, 2017, 10:18:55 PM »
unfortunately today if you ask why you are an אפיקורס

Everything has a right time and place. Sometimes if you ask you'll be an apikores. That's if you're not asking to get an answer, rather just to try to prove your point. Sometimes you're not an apikores if you ask why. That's if you're asking to get an answer.

This is a universal truth in all circles.

Offline Starstruck

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Re: Jewish Philosophy
« Reply #76 on: August 31, 2017, 10:45:17 PM »


your next question does it make sense to say that Hashem is bound by anything? I will answer with one line in quoted and elaborated in chassidus from the Avodas Hakodesh "כמו שיש לו כח בבלתי בעל גבול כך יש לו כח בגבול. שאם תאמר שיש לו כח בבלתי בעל גבול ואין לו כח בגבול, אתה מחסר שלימותו. ואין סוף הוא שלימותא דכולא. there are sevreal mamorim that explain this concept (but once again i am not going to elaborate here).


your last question how can we say Hashem had a taiveh (the fact that Hashem has this taiveh is a medrash which is Torah of which we say that it is a toiras emes so we can't question that). It is impossible for us to understand why Hashem has such a taiveh, for we are bound by our own intellect and can not understand anything that is higher then us and our low world especially something that is not limited to us our the way we understand things.

It sounds like this is the main part of your answer. I only had two questions that I stretched out a little to explain myself. I appreciate you explaining what iskafya and ishapcha means (although you went a little off tangent  :)

I don't understand what the avodas hakodesh that your quoting means. But you definitely did a lot of writing there and I don't want to trouble you any more (unless you really want to). I can always look into it more.

I think this answer is the most deep we can get for this question. So it's time to think of a new question! Yay

Unless someone has something to add.

Also I would like to make a wiki for a index of all the locations of questions and related answers. What do you guys think?

Offline Starstruck

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Re: Jewish Philosophy
« Reply #77 on: August 31, 2017, 10:48:15 PM »
I thought of another question. Why are there any punishments from beis din shel maata? Can't Hashem take care of the rewards and punishments. Why does He need people to take care of the punishments?

Offline churnbabychurn

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Re: Jewish Philosophy
« Reply #78 on: August 31, 2017, 10:57:12 PM »
How many levels of "why" do you know of?

Let's start off with the question of why did Hashem make this world? I think the standard answer is because he wanted to be meitiv to His briyos.

So if I asked why does he want to do that, is there an answer to that? Whatever you're going to answer ( I honestly don't know the answer) I'm going to ask "why".

So how many levels of why do you know?
This question is one of the most complex question. Actually the vast majority of the pashtonim did not feel that this question was appropriate. It was included in the general rule of not asking מה היה לפני,ומה אחרי .

The derech hashem, was basically mechadesh the mahalach of using the "reason" for creation as an encouragement for avodas hashem.

His perek on this is extremely complex, where entire volumes​ can be written analyzing every letter.

(Imho it is actually not so appropriate that "derech hatov leheitiv etc" is parroted around like it is a fundamental aspect of emuna. It is not one of the ikrim at all to understand this. Many people who start pondering this, with the mistaken assumption that it is a basic fundamental, can cv come to doubt the real ikrei haemuna.)

Now to the actual issue of the ramchal's mahalach, it is actually seriously contested by the gedoley hachassidus. So don't even take it as an absolute.

Finally, I wouldn't worry about this question much at all, it is way above our pay grade.

Offline good sam

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Re: Jewish Philosophy
« Reply #79 on: August 31, 2017, 11:24:24 PM »
+1 My rabbeim always encouraged me to ask questions. They also were not scared to say they didn't know an answer. I used to sometimes call R Avigdor Miller during his lunchbreak with questions. He made me feel like he had all the time in the world for me until 3:07:30pm (made up-I don't remeber the real time) when he said "hatlocho gedola v'chol tuv and hung up on me to bench and leave to mincha.

א"ל כל שאלות שיש לך לשאול שאל
R Avigdor stories are the best. Hard to believe someone could have obtained something so close to perfect.
If you don't care why would you comment?
HT: DMYD