tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030144.post5163323947071120459..comments2023-10-29T11:50:25.742+02:00Comments on My Obiter Dicta: העולם הסמוי מן העין: לפרשת לך לךJeffrey R. Woolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11315625918870195028noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030144.post-49576175929531162882017-10-29T10:58:41.458+02:002017-10-29T10:58:41.458+02:00Thank yiu, Rabbi Samuels for your very thoughtful ...Thank yiu, Rabbi Samuels for your very thoughtful comment. I do agree that a very nuanced mix is at work here. I think what lay behind my specific formulation is the sense that materialist approaches to sacra have led to a dismissive attitude toward the sacred and the numinous for those who have experienced them. This is certainly the case here in Israel, where there is an ongoing campaign for atheist materialism which disrespectfully addresses anyone who dares believe in God.Jeffrey R. Woolfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11315625918870195028noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030144.post-74881063274471258242017-10-27T16:24:00.716+03:002017-10-27T16:24:00.716+03:00Thank you Jeffrey for you interesting brief D'...Thank you Jeffrey for you interesting brief D'var. There is, however, in my mind a more compelling middle ground between depicting religious spirit as irrationally numinous and constraining religious experience to the cognitive, between raw imagination and bald intellection. Based on your other writings, I believe you think this true, as well. One develops one's religious intuition through a multi-modal and multi-disciplinary developmental process, one that includes study and contemplation, religious experience and ethical refinement, worldly engagement and spiritual withdrawal, unintended exposure to impurity and intentional purification. Abraham's (for the most part) missing first 75 years surely must have been formative of his religious personality and intuition, something Chazal emphasize in the Midrash, and subsequently refashioned and reasserted by Rambam. Yitzchak and Yaakov Avinu's "numinous" intuitions likewise were shaped by being raised in the Abrahamic tradition and its attendant curriculum, so to speak. The Torah itself says as much (Gen 18:19). To me, claims of religious sixth senses not grounded in Torah, ethics, and worldly engagement can become quite dangerous. May we merit to walk in Avraham's path, and shape a directing religious intuition firmly grounded in the full model of Sefer HaYashar.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11870913533658180820noreply@blogger.com