Rabbi Efraim Palvanov Addressing some big mysteries in Sefer Beresheet, the Book of Genesis, and beyond:
- Who was Og and how did he survive the Great Flood?
- What exactly were the Ten Trials of Abraham?
- Why is Eliyahu spelled without a vav in the Tanakh 5 times?
- What is the difference between Chokhmah, Binah, and Da’at (“Chabad”)?
- Which of the “Cosmic Shemittot” are we in?
- Who was the Nachash (the Primordial Serpent) in Eden?
- Does God create evil?
- Is the Torah written in ancient Hebrew script or in Assyrian/Ashuri script?
- How will all of history be revealed in the Messianic Age?
- Is there a rational way to understand the Great Flood?
- Where was the Garden of Eden located?
More on the incredible story of Og (with archaeological evidence): click here
More useful links at You Tube source: click here
16 comments:
I heard an amazing Midrash from R Mordechai Aderet. Who is Og's mother? Why is he holding onto the Teva?
Because Cham's wife is his mother.......
Any way The Rav can find this Midrash? Enjoying ALL your lectures...thank you.
-Leah
I don't understand. Why would Adam want to experience "other than" Gan Eden? This video made it sound as if Gan Eden was boring. It didn't have to be boring!
Non-Evil need not be boring. After all, is ecstasy boring? To offer some examples - healthy mothers caring for adorable babies - is that boring? Or just imagine a paradise filled with more than a trillion trees, each bearing fruits with a delightful flavor that's unique and different than every other tree. And you get to try them all. And each time you try a fruit, it transports you into a sleep filled with the most blissful dreams. And that's ONLY TWO scenario's amidst so many more possible scenario's.
And they're the absolute antithesis of 1939-1945 Poland. The latter was non-boring in a horrible way. The former could have been non-boring in a wonderful way. L'havdil, imagine Julie Andrews' song "bright paper packages tied up with string" except a trillion times more wonderful. Yet Adam chose the Poland scenario, over the very NON-boring former potentialities? People with my sort of questions were probably kicked out of schools, but as for myself, I was too chicken. Ditto insofar as contacting the rabbi with such a "raw/primitive" question.
M.M.
In The Midrash Says, it says that Sichon was Cham's wife's child that was fathered by Shamchazael, "one of the angels who, before the mabul, descended to the earth to live there as human beings."
Also, it bothered me that in the question and answer period in the video, it was presumed by some that the Mabul only reached that area which is now called the Persian Gulf and not elsewhere on earth. It seems because 'science' is now interpreting Torah and not our holy Sages (Oral Law) and giving some kind of proof of how it all happened in their calculations, rather than what Chazal tell us. The seven continents all fit into each other like puzzle pieces because it was one big land mass that got divided after the Mabul. It was a global event, not a particular geographic event.
"They" agree with the seven continents being one land mass: it's called Pangea [Google it if readers haven't heard of it].
But they don't say it was broken up by the Mabul, they have their own theories.
To those who have not seen the video: The Mabul only covering the Persian Gulf is just one theory.
It also says elsewhere that the Teyvah finished on Mount Ararat.
Which is probably in eastern Turkey. Outside of the Persian Gulf.
So the Mabul would have covered more than the Gulf under another theory.
Efraim Palvanov is only saying that some people have that theory not, all people.
He is trying to understand how the weight of a massive amount of water did not cause the earth to collapse.
But if all the continents were joined together at that time, (and only separated later) , and all the people alive at that time lived on these joined continents, it is possible that the flood could cover all the land and all the people yet not all of the surface of the earth.
He also talks about how the flood might not have been water as we know it in the world today, but something else with a sulphorous content. Perhaps something like a poisonous sulphorous mist? This is because the meaning of the word "Geshem" is not certain.
LM Thank you for clarifying that. Sometimes people leave comments which can have the effect of misleading readers who have not listened to the shiur.
The whole problem is that the Torah, Sages, etc. are the TRUTH.
So when others question the Rabbi, he should only answer the truth of Torah.
Does not matter one iota what science say (which is evolutionary, anyway always changing) Also, the teivah was a miraculous undertaking and does not have to prove in a calculated and scientific way how it could possibly have carried the family and all the animals. Torah is Divine. The events of our past, of creation itself is Divine. Even the natural order of things are miraculous.
An example of H's Ways is for instance, the Ark of the Covenant when explained how the tablets inside and measurements are described; it is supernatural!
We don't need to explain it scientifically.
LondonMale, in the Noah's Ark video, the rabbi alluded to a large percentage of the Flood as likely coming from strata beneath the earth, adding that it was very hot.
Also in that vid. the rabbi mentioned גופר
Here's a relevant paste from wiki (which I can't decipher):
• לפירוש "רבי עובדיה מברטנורא" על כל הפרק •
עצי גופר כך שמו. מאי קשיא ליה שאמר כך שמו אלא י"ל שאמר רש"י כן כדי שלא תפרש עצי גופר עצים על ידי גפרית כלומר ויעש תבת עצים על ידי גפרית שנלקו בו לפיכך אמר כך שמו:
בכופר מצינו בתלמוד כופרא תיבתו של משה על שהיו המים רפין וכו' ועוד שלא יריח אותו צדיק ריח רע של זפת אבל בכאן לא הקפיד אם יריח נח ריח רע של זפת מפני שכל העולם שרוי בצער. ומה שאמר אבל כאן מפני חוזק המים זפת המבית ומחוץ קשה איך לא היה הזפת מתפשר מפני חמימות המים. י"ל שנעשה להם נס ונצטננו המים שבצידי התבה. וקשה עוד מנא לן שמי המבול היו רותחין. י"ל דנפקא לן מגזרה שוה דכתיב הכא וישוכו המים וכתיב התם וחמת המלך שככה. מה להלן חמימות שהרי כתב וחמתו בערה בו אף כאן לשון חמימות שהיו המים רותחין:
M.M.
I agree that Hash-m comes first, not natural sciences. Natural sciences are just a cloak for Hash-m. He can do anything, and has, and does-even if it doesn't conform to the "laws of nature."
Also, I think that only we in Olam HaZeh, could feel that experiencing pleasure all the time is "bland." I've thought about this a lot, before I heard this shiur. For us, with our experience of the world, always sitting around feeling pleasure would get boring. But in Gan Eden, we're talking about a completely different kind of pleasure, a spiritual and physical pleasure that comes from the Noam Elyon, or Supernal Pleasantness, a holy pleasure-not lust or taavah-an experience of Hash-m's love...We just can't relate to it, because our experience is so limited.
Responding to Anonymous at Nov.15 10:47am - here's an excerpt from: https://aish.com/torah-versus-science/
Stated by Maimonides - Sanhedrin ch. 2 "Only wise and understanding men are to be appointed to the Sanhedrin. They must be experts in Torah law, with a wide breadth of knowledge. They must also know secular subjects like medicine, mathematics, astrology and astronomy."
Repeated for emphasis:
The Rambam (Maimonides) said that men appointed to the Sanhedrin must know secular subjects like medicine, mathematics, astrology and astronomy.
------------------
While it's true that science is always evolving, yet alot of that is due to suppression/or/changing of truth by "faux scientists" versus purist scientists, to suit their agenda's. A recent example is Dr.FauXi. That doesn't mean that purist scientists haven't been accurate. Rather it means that their findings were often squelched to suit bully-agendas, never being enabled to do good for humanity.
So for crying out loud, instead of totally discounting secular science as if its bathwater, why not acknowledge there are scientists who actually are genuine?
M.M.
M.M. - No one saying that science is wrong or bad. Here, we are trying explain the miracles that G-D performs. In fact, we will be living a supernatural life in Olam HaBah, so it is should not be that foreign to our thinking. Science is 'just' another subject matter, nothing more; it's no different than learning any subject in schools, universities, etc. Of course, there's truth to it because, for instance, astronomy was a very known subject in the ancient world. Some were experts in all matters of the cosmos and that's why they began to worship the heavenly bodies. They just understood that such magnificence has to be 'powerful'. It's not that real science is wrong in any way (it's another learning subject, teaching us about the physical world) but when there has to be excuses for Creation itself or how could so many animals fit into the ark - we are immediately leaving G-D out of it all. We cannot for one moment take Hashem out of the equation.
TO M.M.
Yes there is a Midrash that the flood waters (whatever these waters were) began as water as we know it.
But the giants of the time felt they would be OK, as it only came up to their ankles and they stood on the springs where the water came from to block it.
So Hashem made the water very hot, so it burned them, and they could not stand on the springs.
And He sent a lot more water so that it covered them.
And it was sulphorous too, which I imagine would sting and give off a toxic gas?
But that Hashem ensured that the waters around the Tyvah remained cool, so that the Tayvah did not melt, and also so that Og could cling onto the Tayvah and somehow be dragged behind it and survive the Mabul.
Rav Palvanov is being humble.
He is asked questions by an audience, who might have different levels of learning.
He admits that he does not have all the answers, and merely quotes different opinions as to what happened.
And he infers that all of the secrets of this subject matter have not yet been revealed to us.
God bless you LM you are a true mensch. I appreciate your comments and this one especially.
To Anonymous at 7:49: Nature is a creation of Hash-m, and this gives us free will, as we can choose to see Hash-m behind the "laws of nature" or chas v'shalom, like in your example of idolators worshipping stars because they look so powerful, be mistaken. Idol worship includes putting power into anything other than Hash-m: stars, nature, science, money, political movements...Everything is a creation of Hash-m, so the only Force is Hash-m. Everything else is a stick in His Hand. So, yeah, there is truth to science and laws of nature, but THE truth is Hash-m, Who is not bound by the laws of nature and so can do miracles.
Anon @ 11:24 pm - Agree 100%! That says it all!
Agree also 100% with London Male @ 12:31 pm!
Maivin
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