Thursday, November 20, 2008

Path to Mitzvot III

Ya'akob ibn Avi Mori said...

Rebbi,

How would you suggest we go about using the RaLbaG to this end, would you suggest we start from Bereishith or would you suggest an alternate direction from which to use the RaLbaG to approach the Mikrah?

Jake

אֶשָּׂא עֵינַי, אֶל-הֶהָרִים-- מֵאַיִן, יָבֹא עֶזְרִי ?
עֶזְרִי, מֵעִם יְהוָה-- עֹשֵׂה, שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ

Dear Jake

I didn't realize you were learning with Jonny- I'm really glad to hear it. Regarding limud bictav, it depends on your interest.

I certainly don't mean to say that you should stop learning Mitzvot in the way that you are doing. It is actually important to continue because that is what you are interested in. I just mean you will find it very helpful to also get premises from the early stories till Sinai.

I would certainly recommend that you try to chart the major stages of the path from Creation to Sinai. It will reveal a lot about the nature of Mitzvos. You would find Ralbag's intro to Chumash very helpful in this regard. The Hebrew is pretty hard until you get used to it, but I have translated it on this blog. Take a look at the post Yakov wrote about Noach as an example of just how many important premises for later Mitzvos a guy learning in this way of charting the development of mankind until Sinai can get. This is the way to gain help from the story of Creation of Shamayim Vaaretz.


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