Re'eh: On Explaining Events With Certainty

Devarim 11:29 speaks of the mountains, one of blessing, one of curse. Many like to point to these two mountains today and note that one is plush and the other barren. However, Rav Shimshon Pincus cites the Gemorah in Sotah which says that these were not two mountains, but two mounds of ash. That means that it’s not definite that what we call Har Gerizim and Har Eval today are the same ones referred to in the Torah.

Based on the above Rav Pincus develops the following point: Many people explain things that happen in the world with certainty saying that X happened because of Y. Also people say that current event X is precisely scenario Y described in the Torah. Rav Pincus cautions that while one can postulate, we cannot know with certainty the meaning of world events. This is a mistake because the holy world like the holy word can not be correctly interpreted with certainty by a layman. The Rambam says in Hilchot Taanit that that it is wrong to say that occurrences are a coincidence. However, lacking a direct tradition about events we can’t know for sure what they mean. A favorite past time of some people is to speculate regarding the era of Moshiach and the identification of the nations involved in the war of Gog and Magog. But you can not know for sure.

The Rambam makes this point in Hilchot Melachim (toward the very end of Mishnah Torah), stating that the only difference between this world and the time of Mashiach is shib'ud malchiyot – that Jews will no longer be subordinate to any other nation. Mashiach will not change the world other than changing our status. Beyond this though the Rambam says that the details of this era are satum – sealed. He says it is not essential to our religious practice to be involved in configurations relating to the timing or nature of the period of Mashiach. He writes in strong terms that such preoccupation and use of time increases neither our fear nor our love of G-d.

The above cited ideas are adapted from a shiur of

Rabbi Shalom Rosner, in which he cited Rav Pincus.