{"id":207473,"date":"2020-05-18T11:34:14","date_gmt":"2020-05-18T11:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=207473"},"modified":"2020-05-21T06:10:31","modified_gmt":"2020-05-21T06:10:31","slug":"pilpul-for-beginners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=207473","title":{"rendered":"Pilpul for Beginners"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Gilad Atzmon \u2013gilad.co.uk May 18, 2020<\/strong><\/h1>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-207477\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/dershowitz.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/dershowitz.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/dershowitz-300x188.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/dershowitz-768x480.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px\" \/><\/h5>\n<h5>Americans may be surprised to learn from Alan Dershowitz that their constitution is far more intrusive and oppressive than what they and their forefathers have believed for generations. The law \u2018scholar\u2019 declared yesterday that \u201cyou have no (constitutional) right to not be vaccinated.&#8221;<\/h5>\n<h5><strong>Watch Video: <\/strong>You Have NO RIGHT to NOT be Vaccinated&#8221; &#8211; Alan Dershowitz:<\/h5>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bLbp2uw5sZQ\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/bLbp2uw5sZQ\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/bLbp2uw5sZQ<\/a><br \/>\n&#8212;<\/div>\n<h5>One possible explanation for Dershowitz\u2019s peculiar constitutional \u2018interpretation\u2019 is that some parts of the American constitution were actually written in Yiddish, Hebrew and Aramaic. As such, their meaning is only accessible to a small privileged segment within the American population, one that amounts to 2% or less.<\/h5>\n<h5>But there is a far better explanation that shines light into the \u2018reasoning\u2019 offered by Dershowitz.<\/h5>\n<h5>In a spectacularly brave<em> Huffpost article <\/em>titled<span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"><a style=\"color: #ffff00;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/what-is-pilpul-and-why-on_b_507522?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9kdWNrZHVja2dvLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAIKRgzpFh795Ppfr3y5Vy2rFi3rVbuPganaV3ke3Olh0xuZgMqjQMQTq0luSTEMCGR3iW1D1KW0ww0Xqn9mh-3LwH68Yu1yNZ%20\"> <strong>What Is Pilpul , And Why On Earth Should I Care About It?<\/strong><\/a><\/span> author David Shasha writes,<em> \u201c Pilpul<\/em> is the Talmudic term used to describe a rhetorical process that the (Jewish) sages used to formulate their legal decisions\u2026 It is a catch-all term that in English is translated as \u2018Casuistry\u2019.\u201d<\/h5>\n<h5>The English word \u2018<span style=\"color: #ffff00;\">c<a style=\"color: #ffff00;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lexico.com\/definition\/casuistry\">asuistry<\/a><\/span>\u2019 is defined as: \u201cthe use of clever but unsound reasoning, especially in relation to moral questions; sophistry.\u201d<\/h5>\n<h5>Dershowitz, is a <em>pilpul<\/em> master. He often employs peculiar reasoning in relation to moral questions especially when it comes to his own <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cxzL5Z8viD8\"><span style=\"color: #ffff00;\">morality and conduct<\/span><\/a>.<\/h5>\n<h5>Shasha writes of the history of <em>pilpul<\/em> tradition that \u201cthe Ashkenazi rabbis were less concerned with promulgating the Law transmitted in the Talmud than they were with molding it to suit their own needs. <em>Pilpul<\/em> was a means to justify practices already fixed in the behaviors of the community by re-reading the Talmud to justify those practices.\u201d<\/h5>\n<h5><em>Pilpul,<\/em> as described, is not about understanding of the law and its meaning but about the deliberate miss- interpretation of the law so it fits with one\u2019s core interests.<\/h5>\n<h5>Shasha points out that \u201ceven though many contemporary Jews are not observant, <em>pilpul<\/em> continues to be deployed. <em>Pilpul<\/em> occurs any time the speaker is committed to \u2018prove\u2019 his point regardless of the evidence in front of him. The casuistic aspect of this hair-splitting leads to a labyrinthine form of argument where the speaker blows enough rhetorical smoke to make his interlocutor submit. Reason is not an issue when <em>pilpul<\/em> takes over: what counts is the establishment of a fixed, immutable point that can never truly be disputed.\u201d<\/h5>\n<h5>Pilpul is basically a legalistic exercise that is removed from truthfulness, ethical thinking or even logic. What we see from Dershowitz is a dramatic pilpul-ization of the American legal culture and ethos.<\/h5>\n<h5>\u201cIn this context,\u201d Shasha continues,\u00a0 \u201cthe Law is not primary; it is the status of the jurist. Justice is extra-legal, thus denying social equality under the rubric of a horizontal system. Law is in the hands of the privileged rather than the mass.\u201d<\/h5>\n<h5>In a pretty accurate description of Dershowitz\u2019 modus operandi Shasha writes, \u201c<em>Pilpul<\/em> is the rhetorical means to mark as \u2018true\u2019 that which cannot ever be disputed by rational means.\u201d<\/h5>\n<h5>Shasha, obviously had Dershowitz in mind when he wrote his Huffpost article. But Dershowitz is not the only one. In Shasha\u2019s article Noam Chomsky is equally guilty of <em>pilpulism<\/em>. \u201cThe contentiousness of the Middle East conflict is intimately informed by <em>pilpul<\/em>. Whether it is Alan Dershowitz or Noam Chomsky, both of them Ashkenazim who had traditional Jewish educations, the terms of the debate are consistently framed by <em>pilpul<\/em>. What is most unfortunate about <em>pilpul<\/em> \u2014 and this is something that will be familiar to anyone who has followed the controversies involving Israel and Palestine \u2014 is that, since the rational has been removed from the process, all that is left is yelling, irrational emotionalism, and, ultimately, the threat of violence.\u201d<\/h5>\n<h5>I agree with Shasha. The Middle East conflict has been reduced into a pilpul battle ground between Zionists and their Anti Zionist Zionist twins.\u00a0 The question for Americans is whether <em>Pilpul<\/em>, a Jewish Ashkenazi litigious practice that is removed from truthfulness, ethics and reason should interfere with American\u2019s constitutional rights, way of living, politics, culture, spirit and vaccination policies.<\/h5>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/support-gilad-s-legal-fund\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-207475 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/donate-button-medium-blue.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"171\" height=\"50\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gilad.online\/writings\/2020\/5\/18\/pilpul-for-beginners\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alan Dershowitz has a new message for Americans: You have NO RIGHT to NOT be vaccinated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":207477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Commentary","category-Health"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=207473"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207479,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207473\/revisions\/207479"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/207477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=207473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=207473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=207473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}