 Today May 40 here. What a wonderful time to learn some Torah from Mark Shapiro here. Topic, the rise of reform and the rabbinic response. Talking about the 19th century. This is talk number three. If it's correct that they're post-Talmudic, they weren't accepted as having the status of a Talmud. And obviously a lot of the information in there is from the Talmudic period. It's not necessarily clear whether that's the case. Okay, I have other things to say but I'm going to hold off on this till next week. I think, even I'll talk about this book next class then I guess. Some of you have it in the liquid state. The man that he wrote about the gas promotion fights. I thought there was only one or two attempts on that. It turns out there were five attempts on his life before they actually killed him. Well, ironically just this week. So this is Natan Slipkin and I think he's inspired or encouraged by Mark Shapiro to get a PhD. So Natan Slipkin operates RationalistJudaism.com. He's kind of a centrist. Orthodox rabbi who's written a lot about evolution and Judaism. Tish is a snail for the rabbin. So it comes down to do you want to remain in the community. If you want to evolve out of the community then you can make all the reforms you want. You want to reform within the community. You have to make alliances with people. You have to get on the same page with people. You have to submerge your ego. You have to build friendships. You have to listen, compromise. You have to do a lot of work if you want to reform and stay within the community. Shemchen Raphael Hirsch, founder of Modern Orthodox Judaism in Germany in 19th century. Shaul Berlin was a massive forger. A massive forger in 19th century Germany. And a huge campaign was then launched against Shaul Berlin. Who already was in trouble for the work he published against forgery. I don't think they assumed that it was all forgery. They assumed he forged certain to vote. And the only one left standing for him was his father. The Hussam Sofair termed the book Kizve Harush. That is not Kizve, the right is of the rush, but the false ones of the rush. Ram Mordechai Bannet of Nicholsburg. He sort of forgot him today. He won most people because the Hussam Sofair who looked up to him, but the Hussam Sofair then overshadows him. If you come with me to Central Europe, we'll see his kevlar. He wrote a statement called the Parashas Mordechai. He really was a giant. He also leads the attack against the Shaul Berlin. Today all academic scholars... recognize this work is a forgery. In fact, it's impossible to read the Hussam and Roche in isolation. From everything else we know about Shaul Berlin. He leaves the rapinate, he comes to Berlin. He falls in with this Askala group. Askala is a Jewish enlightenment. The Hussam and Roche continues to be quoted as an authoritative, Allahic work by posting who either are completely unaware of the history. Just because you're a rabbi doesn't mean that you can recognize a forgery. Just because you're a rabbi doesn't mean that you're more righteous or less righteous than any other profession doesn't mean you're more or less honest, you're more or less nice, you're more or less ethical. So rabbis, you can expect, depending on their education, they may have considerable knowledge in a certain area. It doesn't mean that they have knowledge outside that area. They are like the other class of intellectuals who, once they get outside their field of expertise, they can say smart or stupid things. So the acronym talking about rabbinic sages is about the 13th, 14th, 15th century. It was shown in 11th and 12th century. Great rabbis. Right, so many people don't realize that this document is a massive forgery. So it's still quoted and cited. Meaning great rabbis of Israel. So the mosquilum is used in the 18th, 19th century to embrace secular learning. So you can be a Talmudic scholar and a Moscow. Generally speaking, those who embrace secular learning are not so learned in Torah. So it's kind of hard to imagine that these very smart people didn't recognize that this was a massive forgery. But a lot of people are book smart, but not particularly wise the ways of the world. Meaning approval. So the Vadya Yosef is probably the greatest Sephardic rabbi of the 20th century. So I remember going to see a Vadya Yosef speak and there's a reputation of being such a brilliant man. My reaction was, if he's so brilliant, why can't he speak English? But a Vadya Yosef is one of those rare, great rabbis who also had a touch for the common man. Like soccer teams would come visit him before an important game. He liked Egyptian music. Man of the people. And a tremendous Torah scholar and savvy political operator. You're not relying on his authority, but if he makes a good suggestion and had to read a text, you can use it. But you're not relying on the books to say. And as I said, there's a big debate among the poski, not among the economic scholars, did he forge the entire volume? Yeah. So Big Forger, kind of a very weird, disturbing dude. And what's even more disturbing are the number of people who speak up for it.