http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol13/v13n101.shtml#03
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Rabbi Nossen Slifkin wrote on Avodah (13:9):
>I do not accept that Ralbag only has validity if backed up by Chazal,
>and Ralbag apparently didn't think so either. Rav Nadel's position
>is that Rambam (and, by the same token, Ralbag) give us a license to
>allegorize when there is necessary cause, such as overwhelming scientific
>evidence. My specific allegory in my sefer has haskamos from Rav Aryeh
>Carmell, Rav Sholom Kamenetzky, and Rav Mordechai Kornfeld, shlita.
I asked Rabbi Sholom Kamenetsky Shlita whether his letter in the sefer
could be taken as expressing agreement with Rabbi Slifkin's approach.
Rabbi Kamenetsky has given me permission to forward his response to
Avodah. It is addressed to me by my Hebrew name ("Yoel").
September 13, 2004
Dear R' Yoel,
Thank you for the note. My name does appear in his book and a
careful reading of the haskomo will show that I gave no haskomo on the
content. What impressed me about the book is its science. The uninitiated
unlettered Jew often finds that the responses he gets when he questions
the seeming incompatibility between science and Torah (l'havdil) are
lacking. The science in the book is impressive, but I do not agree
with the positions he takes in the Torah. True, he has "unconventional"
sources that would lend some credibility to the theories he proposes, but
I see these as "suggestions" (based on somewhat spurious understandings
of unconventional sources) that are to allow the uninitiated to feel
that he can begin learning Torah, and see for himself that the issues
are irrelevant. More than anything else, RNS should be lauded for trying
his best to defend the Torah against a group of apikorsim that are bent
on mocking Torah and disseminating science as the "proof" that Torah is
false, Rachmono litzlan. But to say that these theories have credibility
as Torah positions was not my intent in my letter of approbation. I agree
with Rabbi Bechofer and there is no such thing as scientific evidence
which is "incontrovertible".
Respectfully,
Sholom Kamenetsky
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