Back to the topic (although I’ve long suspected that Joseph is a moderator). I fully accept as Joseph’s original post as true and accurate. I think it is little more than a thorough explication of “Hafoch bo v’ hafoch bo d’kulo bo.” But it ignores another truism in Jewish thought; yeridat hadorot. I have no doubt (Pashuteh Yid’s questions notwithstanding) that Chazal, or those who preceded them, had the ability to discern things about the world in the Torah we cannot. They had that ability either by virtue of added Divine presence in the world, superior intellect, or maybe even hermeneutics and drashot we no longer have. I’m not challenged by the notion that ultimately Chazal’s expressed view of the universe will be vindicated. But as time passed, we no longer have those abilities, and the challenges of corporeality are still manifest. We need to deal with our here and now and not Chazal’s metziut. The issue is not should Chazal have studied the sciences and humanities, but should we. One can legitimately answer “no” to the first query and “yes” to the second, simply as of necessity.
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