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Thomas P. Balazs's avatar

Yes, me and Peterson are on the same page about a lot of things. He's got more subscribers though.

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Daniel Saunders's avatar

Sorry I'm a bit late to this. I'm very behind in Substack reading right now. I agreed with most of it, although I've never been convinced by Source Criticism (although I find it does help me look at Torah in helpful ways sometimes).

"Perfect faith" is a much more Christian concept than a Jewish one. I was actually in a class on Rambam recently where we spoke about faith "as if" and the (Orthodox) rabbi defended it as a viable and understandable way of living.

There's a discussion in the Talmud about beggars who pretend to be disabled to get charity money that says that they end up being punished with the disability they feigned. So, what happens to someone who pretends to be a saint to get charity money? His punishment is to become a saint. Why is this a punishment? There are different answers, but one is that it's not a punishment, but a reward -- for choosing to pretend to be a saint. Perhaps we would say he had an unconscious desire to be a saint. Maybe the world would be a better place if more people lived their lives "as if" they were saints.

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