Neville,
I wrote “The Torah doesn’t work with “flat out” anything. Thats why with Yaacov Avinu, the Torah does not say mes when it says he expired and yet further down it does say mes because everything has a reason why things are written the way it is.” With the Torah first only saying expired and not mes but then later saying mes, it is not saying flat out anything about Yaacov Avinu’s death either. And yet you wrote,”“The Torah doesn’t work with “flat out” anything.” Except for when it talks about Yaakov being dead?” What the Torah says about Yaakov’s death IS NOT FLAT OUT anything, it needs to be unwrapped and studied just like everything else in the Torah. Exactly as I said, nothing in the Torah is flat-out anything, including Yaacov’s death.
You write, “However, my stake in this argument has never had anything to do with Chabad. I never really cared about that. I just came here to tell you that the way you were talking about Rashi’s pshat was extremely unsettling and was hurting your case more than it was helping. Are you asking why I’m not telling Menachem Shmei that he sounds unusual or outlandish in his arguments? Simple, because in his community he isn’t. It’s not my place to tell him how or how not to be a Lubavitcher. Within the context of his community, he seems very mainstream and normal.”
And therefore, because in Shmei’s Lubavitche community it’s OK to deliberately misinterpret the Gemorah, deliberately misinterpret meforshim, deliberately misinterpret Ramban and Rambam therefore you are busy harping on me instead of him? Is he writing his misinterpretations on a Chabad website? No, he’s writing it here. The fact that you don’t speak against his deliberate misinterpretations of Chazal and meforshim to “support” his outright idolatry is simply because you don’t care about a “Rashi being misinterpreted ” (according to you), you just care that your ego was hurt. Your constant arguing with me is not l’shem shomayim at all.
As I said before, YOU and others, are interpreting Rashi to mean that Yaacov’s guf is physically alive. No talmud chuchem and no yiras shomayim is laughing at what Rashi is saying c”v. They just find it amusing that there are people who interpret what Rashi is saying to mean that Yaacov’s guf is physically alive in his kever.