Are we all just Ovdei Avoda Zara?

The real yeshivish answer

So how do most Yeshivish people think? Why does R Chaim Mintz and R Gershon Ribner not care what scientists say?

"I'm just answering answers"

Here is probably the best yeshivish apologetic I have heard, one that is so hard to refute it scares me. Although I have heard it explicitly only once or twice, I believe it to be far more widespread.

Here it is:

So, lechoyra, what’s the biggest raya to science? That it works? That it’s proven? Nu, Avoda Zara also works and is also proven! Lets take out a sefer Malachim (Metsuda Translation):

וַיַּרְא֙ מֶ֣לֶךְ מוֹאָ֔ב כִּֽי־חָזַ֥ק מִמֶּ֖נּוּ הַמִּלְחָמָ֑ה וַיִּקַּ֣ח א֠וֹת֠וֹ שְׁבַע־מֵא֨וֹת אִ֜ישׁ שֹׁ֣לֵֽף חֶ֗רֶב לְהַבְקִ֛יעַ אֶל־מֶ֥לֶךְ אֱד֖וֹם וְלֹ֥א יָכֹֽלוּ׃

The king of Moav saw that the battle was too strong for him, and he took seven hundred men with him with drawn swords to try and break through to the king of Edom, but they were unable to do it.

וַיִּקַּח֩ אֶת־בְּנ֨וֹ הַבְּכ֜וֹר אֲשֶׁר־יִמְלֹ֣ךְ תַּחְתָּ֗יו וַיַּעֲלֵ֤הוּ עֹלָה֙ עַל־הַ֣חֹמָ֔ה וַיְהִ֥י קֶצֶף־גָּד֖וֹל עַל־יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וַיִּסְעוּ֙ מֵעָלָ֔יו וַיָּשֻׁ֖בוּ לָאָֽרֶץ׃ {פ}

He then took his firstborn son, who was to rule in his place, and offered him as a burnt offering on the wall; this caused a terrible anger against Yisroel. They withdrew and returned to the land.

What happened here? Moav was losing the war, so he sacrificed his son to Avoda Zara. It’s mestaver its Chemosh:

אָז֩ יִבְנֶ֨ה שְׁלֹמֹ֜ה בָּמָ֗ה לִכְמוֹשׁ֙ שִׁקֻּ֣ץ מוֹאָ֔ב בָּהָ֕ר אֲשֶׁ֖ר עַל־פְּנֵ֣י יְרוּשָׁלָ֑͏ִם וּלְמֹ֕לֶךְ שִׁקֻּ֖ץ בְּנֵ֥י עַמּֽוֹן׃

Then Shlomo built a Bomoh [altar] for Chemosh, the abomination of Moav, on the mountain opposite Yerushalayim; and [also] for Molech, the abomination of Ammon.

We also know that Yidden sacrificed their sons to Molech all the time, which is why it is assur. Now, let me ask you a question: Do you think for a second, these yidden, who were on a far, far higher madreyga than us, than we can ever imagine, would stam sacrifice their bechorim for a shtus? No! The reason they were makrev their kinder was because it worked! It was tested! Scientific! There were rayos for Avoda Zara, and studies, and proofs and all sorts of museums that they called temples! It was the academic things to believe! If you didn’t do avoda zara you were pashut backwards! Even Shlomo Hamelech, the smartest person ever, believed in it! Avada, there were rayos and studies that it worked and it even made klal yisroel lose a war - because Avoda Zara was the science of their time.

Now, baruch Hashem, chazal managed, with their tremendous koach, to destroy the tayva for it¹. But if they hadn’t, we’d all be bowing down to getchkas today.

Now, its the ikvasa demishicha, and everything is hidden. The Satan is pulling out all the stops, as the seforim hakdoshim tell us. He made most yiden go off the derech, rachmana litzlan. The return to Eretz Yisrael, which should have been done with kedusha vetahara, was done al yidei the worst kofrim and reshaim. And then he hid the yad hashem and even physically killed 6 million yidden. All of this is so we should ‘give in’ before Moshiach comes. One of the stops the yetzer pulled is massive, massive kefira. He brought back that tremendous tayva of avoda zara but in a new form. It’s called Science! You think that the Yetzer Hara will make the world look young? You think the teva will match what chazal say? No way! He will make all the so-called “evidence” go against the Torah, because he knows this is his last chance to chap people before he gets shechted.

The only way we could know what’s true and what is not in this olam hasheker is by sticking to our mesorah, our rebbeim, and our heilige Torah. They will guide us by their light. If science seems to go against Chazal or our Torah Hakedosha, we must know its no different than the yetzer hara of avoda zara of years past and hold on and make sure we don’t let go until moshiach comes, bemeheira beyamainu. Amen.

Now this scares me, because there’s a part of me deep down that really believes that the above is true. And it’s impossible to refute.

The one way I know its not true is from the Gemara above

אָמַר רַבִּי חֲנִינָא: שְׁמַע מִינַּהּ, חוֹתָמוֹ שֶׁל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא ׳אֱמֶת׳.

The Gemara makes a parenthetical observation. Rabbi Ḥanina says: Conclude from it that the seal of the Holy One, Blessed be He, is truth.

And yet, still I wonder.

The Great Pumpkin here is a metaphor for Yeshivish Philosophy, not Hashem. Just saying.

Related posts:

Guest Post: The Science Dilemma

The Rebbe is still alive! Just open your eyes!

1. If you look it up, you will see the Gemara immediately before seems to say Avoda Zara has no truth. Although that might possibly destroy this apologetic, a person can say the scientists also do it for tayva, because its pashut Hashem created the world, a la R Elchonon, or alternatively say that originally they believed in science due to tayva (Charles Darwin), and only later did they believe in it itself, like avoda zara, and Hashem made them hardened like Pharaoh and lied to them like the Torah says a Navi Sheker would.