Reply To: Are You An Apikores?

gavriel613:
mw13, looked up the Michtov meEliyohu. When R’ Dessler calls this shituf and kfira I’m fairly sure this is a borrowed loshon and lav davka, as I said before.

What makes you think that? I think R’ Dessler meant what he said and said what he meant. If somebody believes that the ultimat reason they are healthy/wealthy/wise is due to their own prowess, they are directly contradicting those words of the Chinuch: השם יתברך הוא הפועל כל המציאות, אדון הכל

Ramban on the possuk of shema brings from Chazal:
רבי נתן אומר מכאן תשובה למינים שהם אומרים שתי רשויות הן שכשעמד הקב”ה על הר סיני ואמר אנכי ד’ אלהיך מי מיחה כנגדו
Hence this is coming to forbid us to believe there could be another god who would want to make a macho’oh against Hashem and say I’m also a god. Both Avi K’s and mw13’s explanations of shituf would make this medrash hard to understand.

How so? I am not suggesting that what I posted above is the only, or even the classic, case of shituf. There can be more than one way of applying an incorrect idea.

But I must say that I am enjoying the sheer novelty of somebody addressing Avi K & I together, as colleagues in agreement. With enough faith, anything truly is possible 😉