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Re: orion Responses to Ms. Pinnick and Mr. Gmirkin
On Tue, 23 Sep 1997, Orion Center wrote:
> Date: Mon, 22 Sep 1997 10:31:18 -0400
> To: orion@mscc.huji.ac.il
> From: David Goldman <davic@pop.erols.com>
> Subject: Responses to Ms. Pinnick and Mr. Gmirkin
>
> May I respectfully submit the following responses to the following reactions:
>
> >It seems to me that the topic of rabbinic law, handed down to Moses on
> >Sinai, is off-topic, where Orion is concerned. Questions which cannot be
> >resolved by academic methods and which are based on faith propositions
> >tend to produce ill feeling and waste a lot of time and bandwidth.
>
> I am a little surprised that you would approach it this way, since the
> belief/context of the scroll writers took Sinaic revelation into
> consideration whether they were at the time of Herod or before. Why does
> this specifically create more ill feelings than other controversies? Why is
> a scholarly analysis of the content and context of the scrolls from the
> traditional Judaic faith perspective inappropriate, inasmuch as rational
> analysis is also based on a faith.... I detect a little prejudice here.
> Since the issue of who authored the scrolls cannot be resolved conclusively
> on academic method either, then much of the field is based on alot of
> faith..... some Jewish-faith based, some Christian-faith based, some
> Rationalism-faith based.
Arguments based on religious faith tend to be circular, and since we cannot
assume that other subscribers accept the premises on which your analysis of
the Scrolls is based, it is unlikely that the outcome of such debate would be
useful. The discussion of DSS from a Judaic faith perspective is appropriate
for some lists but not for Orion.
Second, I haven't mentioned this before but I ask participants not to write
responses in capital letters. It is difficult to read and gives the
impression of shouting.
Third, I forwarded David Crowder's mssg to the list, mistakenly thinking
that he was subscribed. He is not on Orion, so please respond to him
privately.
Avital Pinnick
list moderator
Orion