How the (Seemingly) Outdated Elements of Torah Are Evidence of Its Perfection (Part 1)

In today's Lomdeha Friday Seminar (3/5/21) we broached a broad, deep, and nuanced topic: what to make of the elements of Torah which seem to be obsolete, or worse. The goal of this shiur was to initiate the conversation and to present my own perspective on how to address such questions and problems. My "answer" involves seven premises about Torah: four of which were discussed in Part 1, and the remaining three of which will be discussed next week in Part 2. Needless to say, there are many particular questions and problems that can be asked about particular examples of seemingly obsolete phenomena. Our goal was to develop a general approach without getting bogged down in those particulars. Perhaps we'll take those up in other shiurim.