{"id":43099,"date":"2012-04-15T19:57:50","date_gmt":"2012-04-16T03:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=43099"},"modified":"2012-04-15T20:10:55","modified_gmt":"2012-04-16T04:10:55","slug":"were-the-vilna-gaon-and-the-chatam-sofer-rationalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=43099","title":{"rendered":"Were The Vilna Gaon And The Chatam Sofer Rationalists?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his fourth lecture on the Chatam Sofer<\/a> for Torah in Motion<\/a>, historian Marc B. Shapiro<\/a> said: “The Rambam<\/a> did not believe in amulets and the like. The Chatam Sofer would give out amulets. He was not a Lithuanian<\/a> Torah scholar.”<\/p>\n

“Sometimes people talk about the Chatam Sofer<\/a> the Vilna Gaon<\/a> as rationalists. Nothing could be further from the truth. Although most of their time was spent on Talmud<\/a> and halacha<\/a> (Jewish law), this does not mean they did not spend any time with kabbalah<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

“Until our own time, the prototypical Lithuanian Torah scholar had no involvement with kabbalah.”<\/p>\n

“Today mainstream kabbalists say that kabbalah is for elites.”<\/p>\n

“This is basic to all religions [and philosophies]. You want to keep the masses worshiping.”<\/p>\n

“Chabad is an elite group. They try to teach this [version of kabbalah] to everyone but Chabad prided itself as an intellectual movement, as the most intellectual of the Hasidim.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his fourth lecture on the Chatam Sofer for Torah in Motion, historian Marc B. Shapiro said: “The Rambam did not believe in amulets and the like. The Chatam Sofer would give out amulets. He was not a Lithuanian Torah … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marc-b-shapiro"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t